registered nurse

therapist

dietary aide

mental health technician

admissions coordinator

North Spring Behavioral Healthcare

Great learning experience, would not have the diverse skill set had I not had the experience of working at North Spring. Met many amazing human colleagues, in all departments, I am positive I will never have to opportunity to meet such talented and strong people in this capacity. That said, North Spring is a greedy cooperation that puts all energy into making a profit. This has caused great trauma to all those involved in the business, including not just personal trauma but to society and the population that it serves as a whole. I love love loved the work I did with the kids and families, I was good at it, got the job done and was on top of everything, including the daunting paperwork that was never ending and forever changing. Despite my loyalty, skill set and work ethic, my efforts went unappreciated and discarded. My most current supervisor was a glutton to please the CEO and went above and beyond her duties to micro manage to the point of misery and emotional abuse. I had never been unhappier at a work place than when my former supervisor came on board. Sure, it may look good to administration initially, but eventually that mentality will catch up and unfortunately, those harmed are usually innocent victims that are seeking help. This agency has struggled with joint commission, Medicaid and various localities regarding accurate documentation, ethical practice and appropriate conduct. Please be weary of working for this company as it can be a liability and tragedy waiting to happen. I resigned after a long run at North Spring, and that was hard due to my commitment to my clients. This is a desperately needed service, though ethics and care must be priority to truly offer this service. This company does not offer that, sadly. In the days of COVID, this company does not adhere to safety protocol or honor PTO, to give a sense of their values. Again, irreplaceable learning experience, just a sad sad place to work.

In training we are told one thing, but in reality on the job this is completely different—“You won’t be mandated that often”. But wait! The first two weeks they are trying to mandate you to work and stay overnight two times a week. This is after you’ve also been told in training that it takes a while to get good at what you have to do, and the first month or two will be challenging in some ways. It doesn’t seem right to burn someone from the beginning knowing they are just starting to learn the job. No productive or effective at all.

If you are new, many employees do not want you to succeed. Management does nothing to help prepare you to be, “in numbers”, they just let people come in and exist without any attention or care for development.

The system is very old, using all handwritten notes, and if everything is not perfect, they will send the notes back to you to do it all over again.

You are trying all day to get the notes right when you should be able to spend more of your time attending to the kids.

There is a very immature and culture of clicks and if you’re an outsider you do not get accepted easily. Does this sound like the kind of healthy culture needed for a place that takes care of severely damaged kids? Nope, it’s not.

We are told to just go through the minimum  amount necessary to get groups completely, and nothing is actually done that benefits the kids in any way. It’s all a lie to ensure that the company gets the needed funding from the insurance companies.

They simply are not always doing what is best for the kids, but instead often doing what is best for the egos that work there. It’s not a good place.



The grounds are beautiful but the RTC is filthy. Ceiling tiles are broken and/or have black mold/mildew on them. Residents bathrooms have mildew on the ceilings and around the bath tub, some don’t have shower curtains. Tons of money is being poured into building an addition onto the acute hospital but nothing is being spent to repair, maintain or for basic upkeep of the RTC. Day staff are expected to work weekend shifts. If you are unable to volunteer for an extra shift, your job will be threatened. If you cannot stay for a mandate, you will be terminated. Unit coordinators are infrequently involved on their units and absent during the school day despite the fact they are supposed to pick up two day shifts a week. They will mandate staff before they will work in numbers. Days where you aren’t mandated, you should still expect to stay late as staff on the incoming shift are frequently late. Few of the senior staff members are willing to help new staff. Bathroom breaks are had to come by. Most supervisors run in cliques with favored staff and rarely leave their office throughout the shift. Morale is low and it wouldn’t appear that anything is being done to improve it. Staff are overworked and under appreciated. Supervisors openly sign paperwork saying they’ve met with you when, in fact, they have not. Staff are pressured to physically restrain students instead of verbally de-escalating them. 

North Spring Behavioral Health is not your typical work place. 
 Majority of the older staff members who's been there for years are very mean and aggressive. If you are new staff and they don't like you, the older staff will go out of their way to make you uncomfortable hoping you will quit. There is definitely a "Click" among the staff that works there. Unfortunately, some of the shift leads and supervisors are in this click. There are several staff members who comes to work just to sleep, go out multiple times during their shift to smoke,constantly on their cell phones, and will leave the new staff in the unit to deal with the kids while they are out chatting with their friends in another unit. This goes on everyday, the culture is so negative because of the older staff that were there for awhile and have gotten used to acting unprofessional not only to other staff but also to the kids. Working in North Spring Behavioral Health is definitely a challenge if you are trying to do your job the right way and you are not corrupt. I recommend that the upper management should take a close look on their older staff members and investigate how they work and treat the kids. It is definitely an eye opener. Favoritism, manipulating the schedule, jealous old staff members, sleeping on the job, constantly on their cell phones, smoking and taking breaks multiple times during their shifts, cursing the kids, no call no show, tardiness and staff dating each other are just few of the things that goes on in this place.

The vibes at NS are horrible. Dingy building that is falling apart. The wrong people are promoted for the wrong reasons. Over my time there I saw supervisors purposefully aggravate clients so they could put them in physical holds. Actually talented and compassionate employees not given respect or increased responsibility from higher-ups. Upper management looking for clique-y supervisors that will blindly follow their will and implement procedures that will earn NS $$ regardless of how poorly clients and other staff are treated. Witnessed clients whose behaviors became MUCH worse throughout their time at NS due to lack of structure in which clients were assigned to which unit. Kids with autism mixed in with truly violent/unstable clients. Witnessed numerous hospital worthy injuries to kids and staff alike. NS is all about filling beds and making that $$$$$$. Management seriously does not give two s**** about anything else. Group therapy sessions were contrived and ineffective. It was a horrible, borderline traumatic place to work in that I grew to dread. I really advise completely steering away from NS unless you want contributing to a place like this to haunt your conscious. The people that run this organization should straight up be arrested and this place should NOT EXIST. Also, terrible pay & constant mandating for overnight shifts with the threat of being fired. Really it is a total no brainer...STAY AWAY!!!!

I could write a long bad review, but I'll try to keep it brief and as positive as possible.

There is a lot of ego in the facility.  Management is often not present.  Incidents are handled badly, and no one really ever takes responsibility for anything.   The mental gymnastics, absurd rationalizing and hypocrisy when something goes wrong is incredible. There is very little accountability.  There are plenty of good apples in this place, but you will definitely be tolerating a fair number of selfish ones as well.

Id rate the whole thing 3 out of 5.  No regrets here.  The job and the pay are not great, paired they are at best a 4 out of 5.  Additionally, I knock a full point off for management being absent or obtuse. 3/5 seems pretty fair, with a half point margin.  Depending on the day your looking at a 2.5/5 to a 3.5/5.

The work is not usually harder than anywhere else, the pay is fair(I guess), the management is middling.  You could do worse, but you could probably do better.  I think its worth a shot - if you fit in with the staff, and like helping kids you can maybe make something of it.  There is definitely challenges here, but they have very little to do with what is in the job descriptions.  If you like to see things improve or if you like to see mistakes rectified, you will be disappointed.  For better or worse, I don't think anything in that facility will ever change.


  Its a for-profit behavioral health facility, and it will feel like it.


NS is the worst job I’ve had. 
NO loyalty towards the staff that has worked hard, picked up extra shifts every week & stayed for years. Drama all the time. 

Kitchen staff: disrespectful towards residents and staff members. They can’t make a food tray right to save their life. complain about everything. 

Management: will throw you under the bus in a heartbeat.
They will believe the resident word over the staffs. Unfair treatment— let the weaker staff members make big mistake after big mistake, with no consequences & expect strong staff to pick up the slack and take blame for the mistakes of other staff. Unreasonable staff expectations, You work 16-18hr shifts w/out any type of break. 

CEO and HR: they will FIRE you & NOT even tell you that you’re fired.
They are sketchy, weak-minded men. 

They blame staff for every situation that happens & will punish you without any actual evidence/proof, they don’t ask for your side of the situation. Go behind your back, break verbal contracts. 
They are clueless about what it’s actually like working on the units, handling situations & offer zero guidance or suggestions on how to help. Ignore staff suggestions on how to make working the units better, what isn’t working and what to fix in the unit program.

Management understands the difficulties of the field; therefore, they try to support you as much as they can. The most challenging part of the job is when the patients get into fights. It is hard to watch them struggle with the issues they come into the facility for. You get to see it firsthand and understand how real the issue of mental health is. The most enjoyable part of the work is that you witness the change and transformation in the patients as many of them start feeling and acting better. You watch how they move from anxiety, depression, or aggressive behavior to calmer and happier people. Every workplace has some employees who feel the urge to go for rivalry and mean comments, but thank God North Spring has a kind of dynamics that automatically eliminates these types of people from the system. Personality is the most important aspect of the job because if you cannot be a role model for the patients, the job naturally won't work out for you. 

I worked there PRN for a while in their residential facility. When they opened their acute location, I wasn't there for very long. The building started falling apart and flooding within 2 months of being built. Constantly working understaffed (never enough techs) so the one nurse (only one nurse on staff at a time for 17 kids at the time) was in holds regularly. It was paper charting so the paperwork required for 1 hold was over 10 pgs. If there was 3+ holds in a 12 hour shift, I'd have 30+ pages of hold paperwork alone! Not even counting regular documentation! Equipment was lacking; I had to bring in my own equipment to care for children's wounds. When I quit, I told my manager "This place is a ticking time bomb". Lo and behold, 1 hold related death and not even a few months later, a broken spine related to an improper hold! That place had SUCH potential to be something great, but with lack of staffing, it was terrible. Spend the money to staff appropriately, or OVER staff! Morale of staff and children will improve as will safety.

Working in Acute or RTC is not easy. We are working with kids who require the highest level of care. It is challenging and yet rewarding. The people you work with make the job even more enjoyable and manageable. The kids have their moments, but at the end of day are great to work with. Having strong time management skills is a must to manage all the unpredictable that happens, but if you are someone who is able to verbalize when they need help, the team, and management included  will be there  to help. Management is as transparent as we can during  the interview process w the dynamics of the challenges and benefits of the job. We want people to know from the get go what they are getting into so they can make an informed decision, which in the end will help with retention. Please ask any questions/worries/ fears during the interview process and if you get hired, please continue to do so. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Registered nurse 79 salaries reported	$46.00 per hour
Therapist 89 salaries reported	$77,265 per year
Dietary aide 93 salaries reported	$17.25 per hour
Mental health technician 45 salaries reported	$21.78 per hour
Admissions coordinator 56 salaries reported	$30.69 per hour

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