school counselor

case manager

licensed practical nurse

care manager

counselor

Volunteer Behavioral Health Care System

Crisis Intervention Specialists/Mobile Crisis Response Technicians are response responsible for dealing with clients on site at the walk in center, out in the community at hospitals, jails, or private residences, and sometimes through telehealth. Day shift does not always have enough staffing, leading to a burdensome workload. Night shift is much more manageable, but there are no on site managers, and management/MPAs do not always answer when needed leading clinicians to be limited on what care they can provide. Clinicians assess clients who are suicidal, homicidal, hallucinating, delusional, and looking to detox from substance abuse. Assessments usually only last about 15 minutes or so and the rest of the work takes place independently, so it is not constant ongoing conversation with people in crisis the way crisis hotlines are set up. Some situations are less safe than others and the pay only starts at around $20/hr despite requiring a bachelor degree and being literal crisis work. There is a $1 differential for night shift and a $1 differential for Saturday and Sunday leading to a potential max of $22. VBH does not offer pay raises but do offer a $2500 retention bonus if employees agree to remain an additional year which must be paid back if employees leave before the year term. Shifts are typically 4 10 hour shifts, so there are three off days. There is also usually an opportunity for overtime if needed, and PTO is offered after 3 months of service. There is a six month probationary period when beginning employment. Management are supportive of educational advancement and will provide recommendation letters and training opportunities, as well as providing clinical supervision for those who need licensure, and also provide internship opportunities. All in all it is a good company, but there is definitely room for some improvement in some areas.

This location is horrendous. First off the clients do not come first. It’s a 24/7 intake unit but the providers are not there at all hours. Meaning some clients go without detox meds for over 24 hours. Which leads to many AMAs. Secondly, the staff treats clients terribly and even mocks their ailments! Thirdly, the management uses cameras to spy on every employee instead of spending time on the floor getting to know their people. There is no interaction, positive reinforcement, or team building. Just emails wondering why people were where they were for x amount of time then threats of losing basic necessities for employees. It’s sink or swim and good luck trying to become a part of the team with all the clicks going on. If you don’t fit in people will literally turn everyone against you. If your mental health is not strong, you’ll quickly crumble and lose motivation at work and in life.Especially with no support from your management unless of course you count the desk watching as support. Training is awful. You’ll have new people training new people, with no idea what they are doing until you get in trouble for breaking policy, and the policies change everyday so good luck keeping up. I would not recommend the cookeville location to anyone.

Conducted individual therapy sessions for mental health patients. Did intake interviews, provided referrals when necessary, implemented and determined patient treatment plans, kept detailed, specific progress notes on each session, verified insurance benefits with various insurance companies, medical records filing, networked with therapists in weekly meetings to ensure best practices for each client, made diagnoses and determined most appropriate therapy techniques and applied those in counseling each individual separately. This was all done under the supervision of a therapist at the facility. She had never mentored a student intern and did not really have the time nor patience to assist me properly. This was somewhat discouraging, however, I knew that I loved my chosen profession after this intern experience.

Working at Volunteer is rewarding. If you want a true career in mental health with tremendous opportunities for advancement, you should work here. Volunteer serves many individuals who are uninsured and with limited income who might otherwise not be able to get mental health services. The work you do here changes lives. It is disappointing to see former employees complain about low pay. They should have stuck around! This is a non-profit and the company has recently increased pay to compete in the current non-profit behavioral health market. With the exception of the current health insurer's coverage (just my opinion), the benefits are great. Where else are you going to get 12 hours a month of PTO in your second year (10 in your first), plus all of the holidays and two extra days? Good match on your 401K? Dental, vision, life, accident and many more benefits? There are lots of perks and this past year, employee appreciation efforts have been at an all time high. I highly recommend Volunteer. 

I've worked for VBHCS for 5 years. In that time, I've been promoted twice. As with any position in community mental health, the work can be intense and at times challenging--it takes real commitment and sense of purpose to work long-term in this field. In my experience, VBHCS matches that commitment and dedication to mission, expecting the best of its employees for the benefit of clients, and in turn doing its best to support staff. I have been in management elsewhere and can attest that it's often hard to meet staff's every expectation--but I can assert confidently that VBHCS does an excellent job of giving staff the work environment, guidance, pay, and benefits they need to do their best for the people we're there to serve. No company or organization is perfect, but I'm proud to work at VBHCS and proud of the work we do every day to assist our clients. 

I would only recommend this place to someone who thrived in toxic environments. Management/CEO’s/higher up’s will be this companies downfall. They get new management about every 8 months. They can never budget correctly and always run out of funds for things needed at the facility. Management will sit in office all day spying on cameras instead of coming out and helping when they’re short staffed. Policies change daily and it’s hard to keep up.  I’ve seen them fire people that were working for 15-20 years over the most ridiculous things like not receiving Covid vaccine or being laid off when the facility couldn’t pay all their workers….they aren’t appreciative…The only positives are that the work itself is easy and pay was great. The employees are nice and it can be a rewarding job helping sick patients. 

I’ve learned so much and grown so much at this agency. Lots of staff, from leadership to front-line staff have stayed here over 20+ yrs, so that should tell you something! This company allows you to grow and supports people willing to do the work for a mutually beneficial partnership. They listen to feedback and have implemented change as much as possible to improve this workplace. I’ve had the privilege to work with many various departments and have a unique perspective to how this company “ticks.” I’m thankful for the opportunities I’ve been given to grow here, and the flexibility through some tough times including a pandemic and personal stressors. If you communicate your needs, they will listen and work with you. 

A typical day at work involves dealing with mass amounts of calls coming in from 29 counties. These calls are all from individuals and facilities dealing with mental health crisis. You must be able to think quickly and response quickly to all calls. You have to be able to multi task, because you will be required to do several different things at once. This is a fast pace  high stress job, however it can be rewarding knowing that you are making a different in others lives. I have learned so much about policies, procedures and operations of mental health. The hardest part of the job is not being able to help everyone who ask for help. The most enjoyable part is knowing that your hard work is making a different in so many lives. Knowing that what you say can make a different between death or life for many.

I would not recommend being a care manager at this agency. I used to think that it was a good place for individuals new to the field to gain experience, but I would not suggest this place to anyone. This agency does not care about the clients it serves, but rather continues to find new ways to get more money out of each client's insurance. Upper management comes out with new rules and regulations monthly, and all employees are driven by fear rather than desire to help. I worked at this agency for multiple years and I can truly say that our work was never deemed good enough. If you are a person who likes and needs emotional and task support from management, this is not a work environment for you. The only positive of this job was being able to have a flexed schedule, but that was no longer the case when I left the agency.

I learned so much and enjoyed being able to work mostly independently for the crisis team. The level of unfairness in the workplace though made it not worth it. The crisis line may be called at any time and calls are assigned to workers as they come in. Some workers would be assigned calls and refuse to take them at all knowing that somebody else would pick it up, of course because we have people's life on the line so why would you purposely not help them? But this just made it to where some workers would be paid to ignore calls and do nothing while the others bust their butt taking call after call and trying to balance multiple calls at once when the other worker is just hanging out. When brought to attention of management they did nothing. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
School counselor 15 salaries reported	$46,133 per year
Case manager 19 salaries reported	$40,895 per year
Licensed practical nurse 9 salaries reported	$30.22 per hour
Care manager 9 salaries reported	$40,000 per year
Counselor 3 salaries reported	$52,000 per year

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