clinician

community support specialist

employment specialist

administrative assistant

housing specialist

West-Central-Behavioral-Health

Company does not respect their employees. Middle management are individuals who have devoted their lives to this company, not their clients, and have not kept up on current best practices. They expect that their staff worship the ground they walk on, and their word is not to be questioned under any circumstances. Upper management is ineffective and turns a blind eye to what is occurring within their offices. Though concerns are taken directly to them, changes will never be noted. Staff change over is constant related to ineffective management that requires significant re-education or replacement of many middle managers, that will never occur. Non-management staff are treated disrespectfully and their education and knowledge are undermined, regardless of their specialty. Communication within teams related to clients is horrendous, and if you try to work hard to create effective treatment plans for clients and provide them treatment you are treated badly. Treatment is not provided for clients, hand holding, or ignoring occurs with once monthly contact for billing purposes. I would not recommend this company to any of my co-workers, or anyone I know with a mental illness seeking help, they do not want to help people. Significant changes need to occur from the top down. Low level staff are hard working and compassionate, yet unable to be effective in their care and jobs due to barricades placed by management.

If you are entering the mental health field to provide high quality treatment to individuals, do NOT work for this company. You will never attain their productivity requirements, and even then will be doing paperwork long into the night and on the weekends. The benefits could be worse, but are not great by any stretch. There is little job advancement as middle management positions are held by individuals who have dedicated their lives to the company and are stuck in the practices of decades ago, not allowing for current evidenced based best practices to be utilized in the treatment planning for client care. Managers are condescending and will not listening to what you have to say related to your clients, you will be bullied into doing what they want and will be encouraged to keep your mouth shut and look the other way if you disagree with anything. There is no way around these brick walls. There is little to no training for your position after you are hired. Your immediate co-workers may likely be wonderful people, but the overall agency culture is appalling. The salaries are not worth the headache, they are barely worth the paper your college degree is printed on. There is a reason that the staff turn-over rate is constant.

I loved working with most of the clinicians but the office atmosphere was completely toxic. Office Manager rules with an iron fist but regularly breaks the very same rules she is not flexible on. It's a bit difficult to take your supervisor seriously when they believe the rules only apply to the people who work beneath them. When something goes wrong the toxic, finger pointing commences and the race is on to figure out who can be held responsible for it commences. There is no collaboration, just an atmosphere of distrust and blame. 

To top it all off the pay is abysmal. They pay their office staff several dollars an hour below what the job is worth and churn through employees on a monthly basis. What sort of way is this for a mental health facility to operate? In my short time there I watched several people come and go. Many were never qualified or capable of doing the job to begin with and added another layer of frustration to the daily slog of working at West Central.

Worst job I've ever had. If you're looking for office work look elsewhere. Most of my time spent here was incredibly depressing. I was not making enough money to make ends meet but still having to work this miserable job with two of the most incompetent and negative managers I've ever encountered.

Speaking from my 20 years of supervisory and management training experience, I have to say that the manager I worked with at WCBH was one of THE worst micro-managers I've ever known. She constantly changed (and ruined) my work, claiming it was inadequate. (Once, as an experiment, I submitted her own work to her. She didn't realize what I'd done and criticized it just as savagely as she always did.) Personal, emotional criticism was her daily habit, and she had made two people before me so miserable they left. After I left, she made yet another person quit, so in about 5 years, she drove 4 people away. This should have been a major red flag to senior management and prompted coaching and training for her, especially since I described examples of her micromanagement in my exit interview. But they did nothing. This didn't surprise me, though, 
because the culture at WCBN is disconnected, cold, and ego-driven. (Ironic, considering what this org does.) They may treat clinicians better than staff, but if you interview here, I would ask serious, careful questions about their attitude toward employees and what efforts they make to retain and grow their staff.

I envisioned staying with West Central for many years due to feeling supported and provided with a professional and caring work environment. Everyone in the childrens department in Claremont were professionals from the support staff to the MD. I had to leave for unexpected personal reason to be closer to home and was sad to leave. The pay is one area that could use improvement and its discouraging that it's not more competitive considering the cost of becoming and maintaining licensure as a therspist. Again this is one of the best nonprofit cmh's I've worked for and the positive moral makes it easier to serve the consumers using the services. I have worked for 4 mental health agency's in and this one is by far an example for others to aspire to. The director is down to earth focused and supports all the staff. The clinical supervisors listen and support services that serve the people and not thier personal ego, which is dominant in some settings. The doctor was available to support best practice. I was impressed throughout my time there. 

I daily plan life skill groups that I, also, facilitate. The continuing challenge of my position is to help my clients to participate.  This challenge, though, is rewarding as it gives me opportunities to home my own communication skills.  

While I am the leader of my groups, my Clients continue to teach me by showing me their perspectives of their problems; and from this, I have found collaborating with them to work out a solution is far less stressful and more fulfilling that simply giving them any possible answer.

While I like all parts of my job, and have been well supported by all my managers over my 16 years here,  I think talking/counseling with my Clients on a 1:1 basis.

I have found the workplace culture OK.  When times gets difficult with the Staff interactions, I do my best to address it in a timely, candid manner, and that openness works out rather well for me.

When I started I was just coming off a disillusioning experience in the human services field, and I am very grateful to have come to WCBH. The team I work with has been incredibly healing and supportive over my time here. I can only speak for myself, but site management has been both supportive and constructive in their feedback. 
That said, the pay is low and doesn't exactly change with seniority or licensure so don't be expecting annual raises. The productivity requirements are..somewhat high and are largely based on services completed and are therefore impacted by factors outside your control like clients not showing up-which is frustrating. 
Otherwise, I would highly recommend the work if you are driven more by intrinsic reward, but if you are clinical staff advancement will be hard to come by without diverting to administration.

I loved working at WCBH. Loved it. Every day was a joy. 
After almost four years, one day I was laid off with no reason given other than "staff consolidation".
I was given assurances by HR that I was eligible to be rehired and was even given a letter which clearly states so (which I still have in my files).
Yet every time I reapply to work at WCBH, or at Arbor View,  I am never even granted an interview. This is completely perplexing to me. I have wanted desperately to return and share my skills with the team and clients there. 
I am highly qualified for any Bachelor level position with 35+ years of human services and mental health experience.
I managed a residential program and made it highly functional. My colleagues and clients were amazing. 

I've enjoyed working with Clients and having a good team approach to treatment. My direct supervisor has always been helpful, co-workers are great. I feel challenged and supported. Having a high case load due to being short staffed has been a challenge. It's been a challenge to get raises, even after sending a formal letter to the CEO and HR and discussing my concerns. Many past employees have left because of HR and the horrible health insurance plans they have chosen for the company. There are barely any work incentive programs which is frustrating and discouraging. The metrics they currently offer are very difficult to achieve. 

Working with clients is hard at times but fulfilling nonetheless. Some clients are wonderful and some aren't, but you'll get that anywhere working with people. Supervisors are micromanaged which trickles down to the employees being supervised. They care about clients, but also strongly care about productivity and performance of programs. They have to to keep funding. One thing is that you have to heal relationships with clients that may have been broken by the last person in your position. 
Most people are very supportive and caring. They will be there to help however they can with a situation.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Clinician 17 salaries reported	$76,043 per year
Community support specialist 10 salaries reported	$26.46 per hour
Employment specialist 3 salaries reported	$24.14 per hour
Administrative assistant 5 salaries reported	$20.15 per hour
Housing specialist 4 salaries reported	$25.51 per hour

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