therapist

outpatient therapist

support coordinator

school principal

foster care specialist

The Guidance Center

Upper management treats direct supervisors very badly, and many direct supervisors in turn treat their clinicians very badly. The clients are not taken into consideration when upper management makes decisions. Upper management does not include clinicians in the decision-making process, and as a result creates policies and processes that are extremely problematic for the clients and the clinicians.

Productivity is unattainable. Even when 0 employees are meeting the productivity standard, management continues to treat clinicians like they are lazy and incompetent for not meeting the productivity standard. 

Caseloads are very high. 200+ in some departments, and clients are often placed on waiting lists for basic services like case management and therapy. TGC has very high turnover and is always under-staffed. Clinicians on staff are often told "we're working on hiring people" and "we know your caseloads are too high" but management will not allow clinicians to refer clients out: instead, clinicians are expected to carry the overload of cases. In the meantime, intakes remain open and new clients are constantly streaming in to the agency.

Write-ups and disciplinary action against employees is common. It is common for an employee to be fired and then for The Guidance Center to go to the licensing board and attempt to have the employee's license taken away. This is a very dangerous environment because of that, and all clinicians are working in a state of fear. Fear of disciplinary action, fear of supervisors who are a pack of bullies. Management likes to bully people into quitting, and then celebrate when they are successful. 

All competent supervisors and clinicians quit and find employment elsewhere.

The Guidance Center used to have a very good reputation and offer high quality services. I'm not sure what happened to put it into a decline, but it is very embarrassing to work there. I felt like I was constantly having to apologize to my clients for things upper management had done. Even the clients will say things like "I know The Guidance Center is always messing up" and ask you "What's going on? Why does everyone quit?" Clients will say "Everything seems to have changed here." Other agencies in the area have stopped referring clients to The Guidance Center. 

They are still using paper charts for medical records, and clinicians are not allowed in the chart room. If you need to get a document from the chart, you must request the chart, flip through pages to find the document (if it's even been filed - documents are often missing) take it out, copy it, and then put it back in. 

Clinicians are often assigned tasks that are supposed to be performed by other departments. For example, when a client owes a balance and hasn't paid, the clinician will be asked by the billing department to tell the client to pay. This is embarrassing and inappropriate! And it's just one example among many.

Just seek employment elsewhere.

The Guidance Center is a well established out-patient facility in mental health, for the Downriver area in the State of Michigan. It has provided a great opportunity to practice as a practitioner in the field of mental health, to be exposed to a vast array of various disorders and psychopathology, along with dealing with a number of managed care systems. Additionally staff were encouraged to take advantage of continued education courses located at the Guidance Center's Center of Excellence.
The area in which I was employed, Guidance Center Adult and Family Services employed only contractual practitioners, that had a number of years work experience.
I would go to my office, already having set my schedule from the previous appointments made with the individuals on my case load, and see my appointments; lasting one hour per appointment. Following each appointment, I would have to develop a progress note consisting of the theme of the session, the interventions used and the client's response. Included in each progress note, the symptoms/signs of the disorder, mental status along with the level of risk involved. If I felt or if the individual that was seeking individual psychotherapy requested medication, I would assist in the referral to the Staff Psychiatrist. If I felt that I had an opening to see a new client, I would inform the Guidance Center's support staff of an opening, and/or inform them if I was given a personal referral from the community.
Regarding a new client, I was responsible in assessing the needs of the individual, along with identification of problems and diagnosing psychopathology. From there the client along with myself would develop a plan of treatment. A review of the Master Plan of Treatment would occur on a quarterly basis. Once goals and objectives were obtained, I would them close the case, with the agreement that if the individual felt the need to return, they could refer themselves back to the agency.
The management had an open door policy, in which if a problem occurred, one would receive  supervision. Each practitioner had the flexibility to set their own hours, and were encouraged to share with staff their own levels of expertise. 
The hardest part of the job came not with in the job itself, but rather, the nature of dealing with a persistent chronic disorder and having a limited number of sessions in working with the individual. 
The most enjoyable aspect is when the individual and/or family member thanks you for helping them out.

I worked as a Family Service Worker (FSW) for Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP), and later, Head Start through The Guidance Center. While working for GSRP, the work was easy and the work load was manageable. However, the management needed improvement. Considering that it was my first year as an FSW and I previously taught in the classroom, there was a lot that I learned during my work experience. The manager who directed the program who was also the manager of my direct supervisor lacked clarity when instructing me to perform particular tasks, i.e. sending documentation, enrolling parents, etc. There was frequent miscommunication and a lack of support. Despite mismanagement, the work environment was very relaxing and my co-workers were cohesive. We all supported each other when help was needed and had respect for one another in the work place. When I transferred to Head Start, the work load became very overwhelming because it was a different program that required more documentation. I also had a larger caseload of children, which meant more case management. My most enjoyable part of working in both Head Start and GSRP was that I was able to establish a rapport with families and refer them to services when they were in need.

The Guidance Center's main campus is in Southgate, Michigan and offers a number of outpatient programs for adults and children to treat mental health and developmental disabilities. The Guidance Center also has pre-school locations through the down river area and school-based programs in some schools. In Lincoln Park, MI is the Outer Drive office, home to the Home-Based Children's programs. These programs are intensive and take therapy out to the community in the homes of clients. There are a number of challenges inherent to this type of work, which therapists and supervisors learn to work around in order to take therapy to high need clients. The management and supervisors at this office are knowledgeable, experienced and supportive to therapists, which is why there are a number of long-term employees. Turn over remains a problem, despite the number of long term employees, as with most Community Mental Health (Medicaid) providers due to the incredible amount of paperwork and tasks that must be completed per funding regulations. Majority of the work is paperwork and documentation, but it is good and important work made possible by the paperwork. The pay is competitive with other CMH options and there is great insurance--rolls royce insurance at a very fair cost-- and generous employer 401K contributions as well as life insurance, long-term disability dental and vision at no additional cost.

The IDD department is poorly managed with lack of supervision and poor training. Team meetings are not very productive, you are belittled by displaying the number of consumers you have seen for the month and harassed to see a number of consumers for so many dollars.  It is depressing to come to work when you have no support from your supervisor and told to just complete a new criteria with no instructions on how to do it.  You are always directed to someone else to assist that's either as fairly new as you or directed to someone from another department who may not know the answer.  The supervisor never gets the answers needed on how to do a task.  You are just pushed to your limit with the heavy caseloads.  The resources needed to assist the consumers are poor with absolutely no assistance!!  Management leaves you in limbo with no answers to resolve difficult situations.  Billing has now become a part of case management and consumes your entire day!! It's not enough time in a day to complete all of the chaotic paperwork that's required to do.  Some staff are very nice while others will just walk pass when you speak and say nothing like a deer with headlights.  It's not a surprise to know another hidden agenda will pop up for you to do without clarity.  The work that's required for the pay that you get at TGC is not worth it!!

I am currently teaching PreK for a Headstart Program under the Grantee of The Guidance Center...I work in Romulus Michigan.
It is very interesting.
The teachers there were many many hats.....
I have to be the Nurse, Mother, Attendance Taker, Teacher, Food Server, the Custodian, The Social Worker,Psychologist and then some.........
I take alot of notes..like ILPs....Which is a Individualize Lesson Plans that I sit down with the childs parents and put together..My plans for the day could be inspired by: (KDI) Key Developmental Indicators, IEPs, The introduction of new materials,Number Plus curriculum  activities, Sharing of family culture shared/donated materials Food exploration, Secon Step curriculum strategies, Children's interest or previous discoveries with materials, Community Awareness,Parent Input, Introducing Areas, Teacher's Choice, COR, CLASS Indicators and markers and lastly Introducing new or unexplored classroom materials....We follow a High Scope Curriculum monitored by the Goverment and the Grantee The Guidance Center, headquarters in Southgate, Michigan....

Responsible for being a member of the Center for Early Childhood (CEC) Leadership Team and  working collaboratively with the other directors and supervisors in the development and implementation of programs and services for infants, young children and their families. Maintained strong collaborative skills partnered and aligned literacy and family support services with programs, such as, the Early Learning Community, Workforce Development CDA program, the Community Resource Center family support programs and school readiness programs. Responsibilities included ensuring that aforementioned programs and services are correctly designed, are of high quality and appropriately aligned with agency and inter-agency goals and objectives. Responsible for directly supervising up to 15 staff who worked with up to 80 at-risk youth in the after school and summer camp programming. Responsible for implementing and supervising staff who facilitated the evidence based Families and Schools Together, (FAST) program, COFI and Forgotten Harvest. Responsible for supervising adjunct programming in the community resource center as Walter White Community Resource Center.

This company is one of the worst companies I have ever worked for, the higher ups are full of greedy! They spend their funds on some really dumb things and do not care about their staff!!! You want good compensation? Please don't work here, you would like to move up in your career? Please don't work here. You're thinking of flexibility? DO NOT WORK HERE. I tell everyone the same thing, and people who currently are there have nothing but bad things to say themselves. For a company that's supposed to be all about helping, they do nothing. Offer nothing, and pay is terrible. The whole place is a joke, and I mean that sincerely. The staff, the real people who hold the place together they're not the problem. It's the lack of care for the staff,  lack of care for the smaller people who do the most and get paid garbage money. Oh and did I mention, you will never ever see a bonus? But you will see the higher ups host and attend nice lunches, or build things that are not needed. Oh and if you have any issue with IT please, put in a ticket, even if it's urgent, put in a ticket.

My experience with TGC was challenging to say the least. The clients are fantastic and the true reason to show up to work each day, but the leadership team makes the situation untenable. Monthly department meetings is watching a supervisor read from an agenda on Zoom, and any effort to have a discussion/ask questions gets suppressed so leadership can cover their agenda. Each month 1 to 3 people leave, so there's no reason to build real relationships at work when basically everyone is on the way out. Pay is low, expectations are high with mandated productivity that was implemented in February 2023, and policies are poorly disseminated by leadership that frequently are not able to answer basic questions accurately or have an interest in helping you grow as a clinician. The company culture feels like one big gotcha question where they change things on a whim, and then write you up when you were unaware of the changes because your supervisor didn't tell you.    

I am a current employee (case manager in Adult deptartment) who is in the notice period (I recently gave my resignation letter). I thought it was ok at first,  but within my first 6 months I saw 6 people walk off the job & only 1 gave notice. That was a red flag for me! Its such a high turnover rate. They dont value their employees & the caseload sizes are impossible to manage because they are so high! No one has under 150 cases on their load. I have approximately 204 on mine & they expect you to see them monthly & do so much more, and you get faulted if anything is wrong. And please dont let one be suicidal or in the hospital. My goodness!!! ITS IMPOSSIBLE! No supoort from supervisors! Only supoort I got was venting to/with my co-workers. You dont have an office, they have us in lined up cubicles like school students! Im so happy to be leaving! Even the new girl says she heard a bad reputation b4 she came, but its a better distance for her. You're so overwhelmed and overworked & very under paid! All im saying is... BEWARE!!!

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Therapist 4 salaries reported	$65,963 per year
Outpatient therapist 2 salaries reported	$62,750 per year
Support coordinator 2 salaries reported	$26.87 per hour
School principal 2 salaries reported	$25.35 per hour
Foster care specialist 2 salaries reported	$64,400 per year

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