youth counselor

social worker

registered nurse

registered practical nurse

psychiatric rehabilitation worker

YOUTHDALE TREATMENT CENTRES

pros. 
It takes a strong willed and kind human to do the job we do.. there are amazing humans in this building from CYCs, Nurses, Social Worker & CST who actually care and want to see every child leave in a better state than they came in. 

Cons. 
This organization is destined for disaster. for an organization built to care for mental health care, they could not grasp the fundamental principles of being kind caring and understanding. Management continue to make decisions based on what favours them and not those who work for them. They have not cared to listen to what staff need and require to continue to work in a safe environment, as one manager stated to staff, “you are crying wolf”. 
There is no support or resources given to staff. Management continues to yell, berate and put down staff before checking in asking about their well-being. They continue to do bandage fixes assuming that’ll erase the harm they’ve caused, and continue to not hire capable individuals because of strict rubric expectations even though there’s no staff in the building. They do not follow safe staff ratios, they utilize and rely on agency staff to work with high risk individuals and utilize nurse and sw as floor staff when they can not risk therapeutic alliances. 
All in all, management do not care about placing staff in harmful and unsafe situations and lack the basic human decency to treat staff was some respect. 

The work this organization does is so important - especially at a time when the youth seem to need more support. While you will meet very selfless, caring staff members, the leaders at this organization fuel a toxic culture through behaviours such as pathological lying, leading in sharing gossip about staff (including speaking poorly about a team member to another direct report), performative use of supportive leadership strategies and jargon. 

Like other caregiving professions or work environments, the people who choose to work in youth mental health tend to value altruism and community. However, the turnover at this organization is ridiculous at every level and department. 

If you had a hard time in high school with bullies, working here will give you flashbacks. 

Hated working here.. staff were not welcoming and would trash talk youth and former employees. Felt judged every shift. Made you do a lot of house chores and basically felt like a house maid. Youth workers made super strict rules and made youth feel like horrible every day.. hard to watch. I had to leave as soon as possible because I hated every minute of it. Felt uncomfortable with staff because they would only have conversation within themselves and make new employees feel left out. Felt like I was living with high schoolers. Staff were under paid and felt like I was walking on egg shells every shift. You would get penalized for things you were told to do and would make you feel wrong every time. I did a lot for them but we never rewarded for it. Felt taken for granted. This job takes a toll on you and your mental health. Not worth the pay. 

The people you work with are great, but management is terrible. You have group supervision once a week, voice your opinion and concerns but nothing changes. You DO NOT get paid extra for overnight shifts, not even the 12 hour overnights. You DO NOT get paid time and a half for stat holidays, because the company rather give you a day off of THEIR choosing. You are not trained properly, but are penalized when you do things wrong. You DO NOT get paid overtime or extra if you stay back late. If you stay back late you accumulate lieu hours, and once you accumulated 8 hours you are able to take a day off. You are not supported, there is a lack of staffing, so you will sometimes be on the floor by yourself and expected to know what to do. Management will not step in to help. There is a lack of diversity when it comes to upper management.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Creating relationships with the kiddos and being a key part in looking after their mental and social well being. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
I think this company has an amazing vision but lacks direction. Most of the staff leave because they aren’t being heard, they are overworked, and a lot of things promised but the company under delivers. I personally did not and was not supported in my role. Most higher ups ask for favours but coerce you into doing them. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
While most of the people you work with on the floor are supportive, some are just not qualified. When higher ups are asked for support nothing really happens. So a lot of the time most senior employees get the brunt of the work leaving them burnt out

while many of us are equipped and experienced with handling the jobs and clients we get, youthdale sets front line and admin staff for failure with lack of support, lack of communication and the odd sense of them doing something suspicious. They yell at you and belittle you. The managers gaslight you and will rarely ever thank you for their support aside from one particular manager. The youth are not difficult as dealing with management. They’re hiring for these pointless positions but will not spend a dime on giving us raises nor letting us use funds to pay for fun things for the youth. They can pay the chief of psychiatry 300 K but can’t spare money for groceries to last a week for 4 kids in an inpatient unit. Also the health benefit plan is disgusting. 

I learned countless valuable skills and life lessons  at Youthdale over nearly a decade. Work was hard at times and expectations always outweighed compensation by a wide margin. My team was a major positive. We had a solid group for a majority of my time there and for the most part felt supported by our on-site management. 

The major disconnect between senior leadership and the satellite programs was a definite weak point. Our program was an afterthought at best when it came to support and decision making. HR was incredibly unhelpful bordering on incompetent, the agency could not retain a CEO for more than a few years at a time causing constant mission changes and the time and resource investment into "Diversity and Inclusion" made client care a distant memory. 

I seemed to be bounced around from house to house on entrance to be checked out. It was like dating women and meeting a family member that had it in for you the whole time because of a backstabber who told you claimed to be training you. Based on the workload, there was so much paper work that people would begin showing signs of mental illness. Well, that gangster mentality obviously started from the CEO, a person that easily follows hearsay and gets rid of people without logical reasoning.  When I was layed off it was a blessing and possibly a curse to them behind the evil scheme.

The PCWs and nurses are great and work hard but some of the managers are not only not helpful but also clueless. Low moral is common because of the lack of support from management but the work that is being done is positive and many of the employees are motivated when it comes to working with patients. The patients are tough but it's a great challenge if you're interested in mental health. I would recommend people that enjoy a fast passed environment apply. 

There is a routine to follow for each day of the week and weekends are more lax with clients as some of them will go home on a visit. I had a great time getting to know the clients and working with them. You also learn about report writing and various other admin tasks to complete as a CYW. Unfortunately, the pay wasn't the greatest and there is little room for advancement which I think contributed to how much turnover there was.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Youth counselor 28 salaries reported	$28.17 per hour
Social worker 2 salaries reported	$39.10 per hour
Registered nurse 5 salaries reported	$47.54 per hour
Registered practical nurse 8 salaries reported	$31.22 per hour
Psychiatric rehabilitation worker 18 salaries reported	$41,957 per year

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