family therapist

life skills trainer

clinical program manager

mental health technician

outpatient therapist

Trillium Family Services

There are different opportunities that Trillium offers to fit a range of employees needs. The typical schedule for an entry-level position as a Skills Trainer is 4 days on 3 days off, which is important to maintain a healthy self-care regimen, and balance work and life. Not only that, but the organization provides great benefits such as medical, dental, and vision insurance, as well as meals everyday! Of course, the most difficult part of the job is working with escalated children engaging in unsafe behaviors; however, the deactivation of those flight/fight responses is where some of the most impactful work occurs. Bringing a sense of safety and security to these children is where the magic happens and watching children blossom is intrinsically motivating. You will learn something new each day, and it is so rewarding to implement the skills you will teach to the children to your own personal life. I have experienced such exponential growth with my own mental health and that in itself is an accomplishment to be proud of.
Currently, I feel I am underpaid for my title and position, as my title does not accurately reflect the work I do if I were to transfer somewhere else. Sometimes, the work can be so challenging that it is difficult not to bring the work home with you. It is important you are able to establish boundaries with your personal life and work to prevent burnout, but burnout is to be expected with this line of work. The culture is meant to be very supportive, but everyone is human and sometimes there are emotionally unintelligent responses. Thankfully, most people recognize these behaviors in themselves and hold themselves accountable for their actions.
I would recommend that anyone and everyone try their hand at working in a psychiatric facility to build empathy and understanding for their community. When we are able to reach out a helping hand to each other instead of dismissing someone in need with a judgmental attitude, we are able to make significant positive changes that will benefit society as a whole. The domino effect is real here!

I was lucky to be surrounded by co-workers who were supportive and invested in the work and in the clients; to be successful in this job you will form trauma bonds with your peers, and in my case, spend your "weekend" recuperating mentally, physically and emotionally so you can go back and do the rewarding and heavily taxing work all over again. Myself and many other staff were injured (regularly) due to understaffing and were asked daily to pick up additional hours or shifts. Caring deeply that circumstances for staff and clients improve, it was difficult to maintain boundaries and say "no". Usually, we would not get our single 10-minute break during a 10+ hour shift due to staff shortages or incidents. Many supervisors (back then) were invested in their teams but were in a very tough position; they faced regular turnover of their staff (quitting, switching teams, on leave for injuries, etc.) and had little to no guidance or support from higher-ups. Upper management were unwilling to hear the needs and concerns of clients or direct care staff and make necessary changes to improve safety or logistics, displaying interest in optics alone. Ignorance is not bliss; staff and clients are hurt regularly due to conscious disregard for the very people who invest day in and day out. If you are looking for job advancement, prepare to be heavily confused by decisions made within this agency. You are guaranteed to learn (and see) a LOT in this environment.  

This company has an administrative team that is clearly solely interested in making a buck and does not care about the type of environment set on the campus. They sweep complaints/concerns under the rug; unless it is something that could really cause someone to look into any situation that would effect one of them. The lead nurses are a joke, very cliquey and unresponsive to general feedback from the other nurses. Spend more time discussing personal life or business that doesn’t pertain to them, over work that actually benefits the youth. Make decisions beyond their scope of practice, that should be made by the physician (but the physicians allow the nurses to basically recommend what should happen). Non administrative nurses are over worked and underpaid/under appreciated. They do not have a voice when it comes to anything within the process of patient care or the way things are ran/handled or safety concerns. The youth that are inpatient are not taken seriously, they are not listened too and everything is passed off with giving them more water and telling them it’s dehydration. I would never recommend this company if you ever want to advance or even feel like you are part of a team for that matter. 

I worked at Trillium for going on 4 months and although I liked the environment and my coworkers it was probably the most digesting job I've ever worked at. When I started, I was told to mop the cafeteria floor that was literally impossible to get completely clean on top of cleaning the unit where the younger kids were. The staff never ever cleans up after themselves or the kids and you are left to clean their messes along with vacuuming, sweeping, mopping, dusting and sanitizing areas where juice, food, and often bodily fluids have been left to dry making it difficult to clean. I can't count how many times I clean bowel movements up off the floor. Not to mention the facility has rats and roaches (pictures to prove it) and everyone knows. They do not have anything protecting the floors inside the clients bedrooms under the beds, so if the client has a problem going to the bathroom good luck scrubbing the dry urine from underneath the bed, that is when management decides they're tired of the intoxicating smell. Everyday I was dead tired and barely had the energy for my own child. Good luck to up and coming housekeepers. They will not tell you in the interview that you will be cleaning bowel movements and period blood almost everyday.

If you want a job where the highs are incredibly high, and the lows are incredibly low, Trillium is for you. The training academy is pretty amazing, as are most of your co-workers, but the kids you care for range from complete angels to being emotionally and mentally exhausting. When things come together and you have a great day with them, there's no better feeling in the world. When people are fighting and getting out of control, you want to be anywhere else but there. Between the fact that they use seclusion for the kids who are acting out, and the boundary issues involving the kids, I felt extremely uncomfortable working there. All that needs to happen is a kid accuses you of touching them in an inappropriate manner, and you'll get canned and possibly worse. Because of this, I found this to be a really dangerous work environment, and left at the first chance I had. Even though there were fun times, this keeps me from going back.

Also, if you like a separation from work and home, you won't get it here. You are constantly getting requests to come in on your days off.

In my time here I’ve seen management change three times. The staff turnover is high and it has always felt understaffed. There are many days where staff don’t get any breaks and days where they’ll get one break or they’re asked to come back from their only break early. It’s very normalized. Burning out is inevitable because they always place the same staff with the classroom of kids that require the most  physical support. Management/ supervisor is never on the floor to support these kids and will literally pull you into the situation going on so they don’t have to deal with it and can go back off the floor or sit with the class of chill students. It gets to the point where even the kids see it and point out that certain staff are always in escalations and never with the chiller classes. Staff get blamed for not responding fast enough to escalations (keep in mind some staff are in escalations all day with kids) while management who can also respond sit in their car to have a smoke break together. Skills trainers constantly talk about wanting to quit due to the working conditions at the program but stay on due to loyalty to the kids

A typical day at work is when the kids are in their optimum performance, I did learn a lot, such as how to be emotionally intelligent and to be rationally detached but more so to be genuine, respectful and not being nonjudgmental to the clients. Being able to collaboratively solve problems in order to meet expectations and concerns and also being able to intervene in a crisis management interventions in a non-violent manner. Building therapeutic rapport with the clients and to maintain safety for both clients and staff. I learned that in order to achieve a satisfactory goal in any organization the management has to be collaborative, consistent and informative in their decision making. An effective workplace is where there is communication among staff, where there is flexibility, where there is an inclusion and also where there is a goal oriented. The hardest part of my job is the stressful environment. But it is rewarding because I learn each and every day I work with the client and being able to make a difference in the life of the kids who are vulnerable is nothing more rewarding than that.

As some one who worked as an overnight employee, you are at the bottom of the list for respect by both the kids that you work with or the day staff. You are expected to pick up after the staff who leave a mess in the office but then have the day staff get angry at you if you leave so much as a coffee cup in the office. You have to fight to be seen as an equal part of staff and get over looked by upper management way too often. The pay that you receive either during the night or day is not enough for the literal abuse that you get from the kids/clients. While I understand that this is a non-profit organization the upper management are putting money towards trying to branching out instead of fixing the big issues with what they already have. While it would be unfair for me to say that there nothing good about this job, it is hard to enjoy them when the big issues don't seem to be taken care of. My main concern is not feeling apart of the team as an overnight and being constantly not considered when rules or policies are put into place since we don't have much of a voice since all of these meeting take place during the day time when we are sleeping.

Working at the Children's Farm Home is hard but so so so rewarding. When you work here, you work to provide an environment and opportunities that many of these Children have never had before. Safety, security, love, trust, healing. This facility comes with a lot of stress and work-life balance is very important. You must put on your own face mask first. However, it also comes with a sense that you're making the world a better place. The agency is working towards a Sanctuary Model and values open communication and democracy. Everyone is encouraged to discuss what they see and work towards building it better. 

There are lots of training and educational opportunities to expand your interests. You're encouraged to facilitate therapeutic groups that you have personal investment in. Lots of opportunities for upward mobility. Most of the higher ups started off as direct care floor staff. 

This Job is not like any other job. These clients come from various backgrounds, have a wide variety of mental health challenges and traumas. There are 5 different programs / buildings to work at, there are 2 secure facilities where you can work with the youth that have a more challenging mental health plan, you even get to help youth that come from detention centers to receive mental health services ( they can be pretty tough, but they can be the most rewarding) and there is a medium level facility and 2 low level units that ct like group homes. Some days you watch movies, go on hikes or do fun activities, especially in Summer and some days can be a bit tough where you might put a client into a physical hold, but there are professionals and supervisors there to help guide you. I have worked her for 7 years and Im not looking to leave anytime soon! 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Family therapist 23 salaries reported	$62,757 per year
Life skills trainer 11 salaries reported	$20.64 per hour
Clinical program manager 5 salaries reported	$76,688 per year
Mental health technician 2 salaries reported	$20.80 per hour
Outpatient therapist 4 salaries reported	$66,897 per year

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