support coordinator

service coordinator

mental health case manager

case worker

mental health technician

Service-Access-and-Management,-Inc

I worked with SAMs and SAMs was contracted with the county Children and Youth Services. I was an ongoing caseworker.

I want to start out with the very few pros. The overtime pay can sometimes be really great, and any meals outside the county were paid for upon submission of receipt. Any driving time outside the county is compensated for (and depending on your caseload, you can sometimes travel to the other side of the state), as well as trainings (which were good, but completely unrealistic). The people you work with are sometimes great to vent to because they can sympathize. The on-call rate was great when you were activated. Healthcare benefits were pretty good. Sometimes you even got bonuses.... but there is a con to that, which I will get to here shortly. Management was not great in the beginning, but when new management took over, it was just okay.

Now, on to the rough parts, and when I say they're rough, they're REAL rough.

-The burnout was absolutely insane. You worked an average of 10 hours a day, because when you went on visits, sometimes the families weren't home till after the workday is over and only had after hours to make a visit. Sometimes those visits took almost an hour to get to. Sometimes, they even made you do visits in inclement weather, because it seemed as if they cared more about compliance than their worker's own safety.

-You never quite feel like you can go home and BE home, because you're pretty much expected to have your company phone on your person at ALL times, even after the workday is done, and even if you're not on call. They preached self-care and had very few options that were company sponsored to help with any stress, but no one had any time for that with the insane workload placed upon them. Work/life balance was awful. I could no longer enjoy my weekends without wondering if there were kids I needed to see or things I had to complete by a certain time. I would wake up anxious, and I lost a LOT of sleep. 

-You deal with a lot of very hazardous and extremely dangerous situations. And you don't get hazard pay for it, either. 

-The hourly rate is laughable for the amount of work you're given and the amount of time you spend working. The number of cases that they can AND will assign you, the amount of phone calls you have to make, prepping for court (in some cases), and trying to meet other deadlines while also trying to stay in compliance is nearly impossible. If you apply to become a case aide, good luck, because that hourly rate is more laughable than it is to be a caseworker, and you spend time driving all over creation and also facing your own set of dangerous situations.

-In our office, there were county workers and there were SAMs workers, as is the case most places. The rift between county workers and SAMs workers was so evident. There was a lot of finger-pointing and accusatory words between the two. Before my time there, SAMs workers were allegedly given bonuses, just because. County workers were extremely unhappy with it. It's terribly hard for the two parties to work together in peace, and it made the work environment very tense.

-One of the reasons I took the job initially was the work-from-home perk. If the weather was too bad, or you had an appointment, they used to let you work from home, catch up on notes, things of that sort. However, during the last month or so I was there, they suddenly took away that perk and made everyone come in. If you had kids that had off from school or were sick, you had to use one of your sick days. If you lived far from the office and the weather was inclement, you had to use a sick day if they didn't close the county offices. Even on days where the weather was bad, they didn't ground us once. 

-You took a lot of verbal abuse from families. You faced threats, insults, and all-around awful things from some families, no matter how hard you tried to help them. 

-The turnover rate was absolutely horrendous. And I can see why.

-There were times where sometimes the office faced a lot of stressors, and the all-around mood of the place was negative. Sometimes the workers (including myself) experienced a lot of PTSD symptoms and had their own personal set of triggers. Instead of maybe giving some time off to these workers or providing more mental health resources to help with this, we were instead provided with a bowl full of snacks from the pantry along with some candy, with a note attached saying "Keep up the good work".  It felt like a slap in the face. 

In short, if you enjoy work like this, I will say go for it. But you will be facing burnout, exhaustion, and potentially very dangerous situations. Also, be very wary of who you talk to, because the office is not all that big, and people can be heard all the way down the hallway. 

If you enjoy a good work-life balance, this is 100000% not the job for you. 

A typical day working at Sam's consists of never ending stress and the feeling of constant pressure. Initially, my outlook was positive, hoping that I could contribute to beating the stigma that Sam's has continuously maintained of sloppy work, rushed training, workers losing their jobs/quitting and possible arrests due to incompetency. I just wanted to do a good job for clients and be able to make a difference in their lives. That is not possible here due to the lack of professionalism from co-workers, supervisors, directors, and people operations. Supervision was a waste of time as I did not learn a thing from my direct supervisor. I feel that she withheld important information from me on purpose due to spite. There are never enough workers or resources to be able to achieve the job efficiently. Rarely does anyone work together and no one ever knows anything. It took days or longer to get an answer for a simple task. The higher ups are sneaky and do not follow any kind of code of conduct. They will not have your back, and will throw you under the bus, nor take responsibility for any wrong doing. I literally felt like I was always doing something wrong when working there but no help was offered. Also, don't expect to be able to advance there unless you start in a position of authority because they do not respect their employees unless you are in a higher position. 

A typical day involved solving problems leadership created, with no training, clarity, or support. I learned to document everything—because advocating for staff and asking for help led to retaliation. Management hides behind jargon and policies they don’t follow. The culture rewards silence, not skill. Hardest part? Realizing speaking up gets you targeted. Best part? The families—despite the harm being done around them.
They definitely don’t know how to budget and will blame staff for it when directors only have productivity they can control. Budget numbers are purposely vague. A lot of immoral practices and disturbing psychological abuse. They create executive positions for “friends” despite considerable lack of regard for their ability to actually do the job. One of the leadership members had a degree less than the rest of the staff- not to mention it’s a requirement to have a Bachelor’s degree. This person also oversees the Clinical Director who is a licensed professional. Incentives were created to be unachievable, yet when they were achieved they were not properly paid out. In the same year, top execs got a BONUS of $50,000-$200,000. The reports are public to view. 
Corporate greed but disguise it as empathy. The only empathy comes from those below executives. They will throw “performance concerns” around when you try to speak up and get help. I was made into an example for staff to understand speaking out will cost you your job within less than 24 hours of speaking up. I could go on. 
My advice if you want to work here: DO NOT. 

Definitely think if you want to work in Human Services and get that initial experience, Service Access Management is the way to go. If you are wanting to do better for yourself then continue growth, looking somewhere else might be the best thing to do. Management is not consistent; they will completely throw you under the bus and live their best life. The pay is complete trash for how much work you're supposed to be doing. They're more worried about the billable units that you get then the actual help that you're doing for the families. Coworkers were great, had no issues with them. There is no overall consistency with what you're told, one month you might be OK and the next you're not all because of the billable units that you're getting. Benefits were great but with all the work you do, what should be a 40 hour work week and turn into a 60 hour work week. There are a lot of service coordinators who have to stretch the time there with clients just so that they can meet their units. No real protections for the service coordinators as well, you're going into homes and it seems like upper management is more concerned that you got your billable units than if you were at risk or in a dangerous neighborhood. There are many people who have stayed there for 5 plus years but definitely don't enjoy it. Went from here that basically pays I believe 25 at the time to know a job that I get paid 50% more so this definitely isn't the only place in the world you can apply and get paid and do what you love. 

A great company but it depends what line you work for. The NF program on the OLTL line is a fairly new program with many flaws and a big need for improvement and organization. The flexibility to work mostly from home, make your own schedule, the salary, and other benefits (i.e., mileage reimbursement, lots of time off, etc.) are all pros of working for SAM, inc. However, the service coordinator position was not as advertised and is a far stretch from those with a background in mental health, social work, case management, or psychology. There is nothing about this position that is case management like nor is it anything that should require a bachelors degree in human servcies, despite it being advertised as such. You are essentially working for an insurance company (PA Health and Wellness) doing work that no one could provide an explanation for why it's being done. There were CONSTANT changes and additions that made it difficult and frustrating to do this job. I did not feel like I was helping people and felt no sense of purpose doing this work. While the people who work from SAM are great (even though you never see your co-workers and/or supervisors in real life) the work itself felt completely useless. I would recommend this job to someone looking for easy work with a flexible schedule, decent pay, and decent benefits, but not for someone who is passionate about human services and is fulfilled by doing work that feels helpful, purposeful, and meaningful.

the support coordinator role is good for someone graduating college and needs a door to enter the field. The experience you have at Sam will ONLY depend on the supervisor that your given and this is very inconsistent. I first noticed inconsistency when paperwork that had been approved year after year was suddenly not approved by one supervisor although it had been approved by management annually the years prior. Then to prove to myself the inconsistency, I sent paperwork written by one supervisor to be approved by another supervisor, and surprise, the 2nd supervisor didn't approve it.  This inconsistency will also trickle into your daily life as a support coordinator because all interpretation of your work only goes through one person (who has no degree in management and may have no natural talent for the job themselves). Also, I remember a piece of advice that was given to me by another support coordinator when I started the job. They told me to just do the minimum because if you over-perform one month you will be judged on that rather than the overall support coordinator standard and you will actually be penalized for being spectacular one month and then just average the next. Again, inconsistency in how support coordinators are judged and expectations vary depending on what manager you are assigned. 

SC in the Northeast Region. Overall there are some benefits to working at SAM like working with consumers and their families, and lots of PTO, but using it is difficult because no one really covers any work, so more and more piles up. Most immediate supervisors do support their staff in being flexible and assisting with any questions or problems. The biggest issues come in with anyone higher than an SC supervisor. Management pushes for more and more billable units (15 minute increments) while adding more and more administrative tasks that are not billable. It's become more difficult to achieve bonuses. "Teams" are nothing but gossips most of the time and there are very few trustworthy co-workers. If you "suck up" and play along, you'll be a star even if your work is sub-par, but if you speak up about any issues, you will be noted as a problem, even if not outright.  Also, starting pay is terrible even for experienced employees. This might be a good starter job, or a good entry into human services or the ID/DD field if that is where you want to go, but I wouldn't plan on making this a long-term career.

This job consists of meeting consumers with Mental Health Diagnosis in their homes to provide referral and case management.  The hardest aspect of this job is the inconsistency with consumer reliability, yet having a high expectation of productivity from the organization.  No day was ever the same and allowed a great deal of knowledge to be gained.  The benefits offered were very good.  Time off is easy to receive; even if it is just for a mental health day.  Overall, the position is good but it is high stress with unrealistic expectations.  There is on-call responsibilities, but these were very generously rewarded. Most importantly, there was a very high turn over rate resulting in consistently having increased overtime.  While you can take time off it effects your productivity rate and puts you behind on your work causing overtime before and after any time off.  This job does allow you to make oout well financially if you are willing to put in the time and work hard.This is a great job for those right out of college to gain experience and those without children who can dedicate the time to the job.

The company: In itself is not bad to work for. Everyone has a friendly, professional, and approachable demeanor you don't find at a lot of places. A bit pricey on the benefits depending on needed coverage. Sick time, personal, vacation, and beavement get preloaded on day one and can be accessed immediately. Incentives depending on department. I would recommend giving the company a chance to work for. 

Children & Youth Caseworker (Scranton office): This department is underdeveloped and understaffed. Supervisors have caseloads so there is no time to actually be supervisors (i.e when you have questions or concerns). Caseworkers at times are not aware of the resources that can be utilized to do the job. You practically get ignored until you foundation (mod 4) then you get handed cases with no oversight and expected to perform as a seasoned caseworker. No in house training, leadership relies on outside sources to train people. Like the state required foundations training for all CYS Caseworker in the state. Caseworkers make grave mistakes that could have been avoided if they had more training.

Some of the people who work at SAM are wonderful people who I’m glad to know are there doing their best to make things better for the clients we served. Some of the people who work at SAM are bitter and disconnected from the best interests of clients, but are still in position to make important choices about their lives.

Sometimes SAM is a positive and uplifting environment, when you’re around the right people. Sometimes SAM is like being in a boxing match with Mike Tyson, where you just get beaten down to the point where you want to give up.

Some of my best work memories are from my time at SAM. Some of my worst work experiences are from my time at SAM.

SAM’s reputation in the community is in absolute tatters. I understand that part of that is expected due to the kind of difficult work being done, but it’s sad to hear so many stories of workers being harassed in public for wearing SAM badges or shirts. There are some who speak positively about their experience with SAM, but they’re a definite minority.

What I’m saying is that if you have a gambling addiction, apply for a job at SAM. You never know what you’re going to get!

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Support coordinator 51 salaries reported	$19.89 per hour
Service coordinator 18 salaries reported	$19.43 per hour
Mental health case manager 21 salaries reported	$19.64 per hour
Case worker 7 salaries reported	$20.71 per hour
Mental health technician 5 salaries reported	$18.40 per hour

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