nurse

support staff

patient care coordinator

counselor

addiction counselor

Canadian Addiction Treatment Centres

I worked with the Company for about a year and half. I was support staff in the Parry Sound Location. At first I was excited to be working here besides the fact that I knew I was going to be paid less than I was when I worked as a Key holder at a retail store in Alberta... It was exciting at first, I went to school for Addictions and enjoyed the demographic I was working with. The patients were usually the best part of the job, if they weren't screaming and yelling at you or other patients, but things got stressful very quickly... 

As a support staff in Parry Sound you can expect to have to do 80% more than the nurses do because they either don't know what they're doing (due to horrible training) or they don't care and think their $10 an hour higher position means they hold some sort of power over you. They won't lift a finger to clean, ever. Not too mention it's like a cat fight in there listening to how the full time nurse can't stand the part time one and vise versa... 

Don't like a manger standing over your head? Great you never see them. Have a problem? LOL... Good luck, you're on your own. Oh but they will show up once a month and tell you under their breath all the things you don't do properly.. Then send out an HR email about these issues after they leave without actually professionally addressing things with you directly.. God forbid training you. 

This place is a joke. WAY too much responsibility for no hours, no pay, and no time off. 

Besides the job itself, they do help some people, but I've witnessed overdosing of patients by nurses and doctors alike..  Lots of clients fall through the cracks because the doctors and the company only care about making their money and hitting their targets. 

This place does not care about you, or the patients. I beg you do not apply.

I worked at OATC for a number of years. The only thing I enjoyed was the company of a couple of co-workers and the doctors. 

The pay is ridiculously low for the job you are required to do. 

The fact that they expect support staff to do patient intakes, ECG's and blood work on top their general duties (greeting/checking in patients, collecting urine samples, answering phones/ returning messages, faxing, emailing, facilitating tele-medicine appointments, cleaning and dealing with often difficult clientele, *just to name a few) is completely insane for the minuscule amount of money they pay their staff. No pay raises are ever given even with cost of living going up and OATC does not provide any bonus at the end of the year even after working for them for years.

The clinic is always short staffed. This makes it extremely stressful for staff that have to take on extra work on top of an already full workload. Also, never being able to take proper breaks and having to work through your lunch break is constant.

You might as well have no benefits as they provide a health spending account which reaches it's full amount of $700 at years end (only if your full-time) and that amount is supposed to goes towards everything prescriptions/dentist/optometrist etc. So with only $700.00 per year after buying prescription glasses and a few pharmacy prescriptions it leaves barely enough for anything else.

Overall a terrible company to work for and I suggest NOT working here!

Only work here if you want to help patients struggling with addiction. The pay is well below average. The hours are not real full time, because weekend shifts are only 3 hours. You have a lot of responsibilities and are expected to get a lot done in short time. Management “corrects” your punch in and out times by only allowing you to start 15mins early and stay 15mins late. So even when you are encouraged to stay late for a new start or finish shipment, manager will round your punch out time to 15mins even if you had to stay 45mins. You are forced to work sick if you can’t find your own coverage. Even with covid symptoms they make you come in and work with the public. Even make you sign a paper every day that says you have no symptoms. Due to staff always quitting you will work for 20 to 40 days in a row and not make any overtime because the hours are so short. Lastly the benefits are so low it’s embarrassing. All you get is a health spending account with $750 per year. You have to use that for everything from dentist, medications, glasses. So pretty much if you need glasses you better not need any medication that year. 

If you value your license or professional reputation please do not apply for any position at the OATC. The toxic environment of  the Peterborough OATC was so deeply entrenched that we lost 10 nurses in less than two years. Management formed close alliances with certain staff which created huge conflicts amongst other staff on the floor. Management offered no support to staff despite  constant requests for interventions, even senior management were unwilling to address or offer support despite very serious ongoing issues and complaints. The errors that occurred on a daily basis compromised nurses professional license and this was cited as one significant reason so many nurses left,  often after only a few months or even weeks
 Recently this particular OATC seen four staff quit in the range of three weeks..... so If your scrolling through Indeed and come across a post for the OATC .... keep scrolling

This company has one agenda and one very clear objective... MONEY! .. if you think you are going to make the lives of those struggling with addiction better, think again...... Legal drug dealers that offer no support or counselling to the clients, just an assembly line compensating one addiction for another


..

Pros:
My coworkers were truly amazing — some of the best people I’ve ever worked with. They were supportive, welcoming, and made a very difficult job more manageable.

Cons:
Unfortunately, the pay scale is extremely low for the amount of work and responsibility involved. Shifts are 12 hours, often with mandatory overtime, yet the wage does not reflect the demands of the role. Health benefits are minimal. I was expected to function as a PSW, cook, cleaner, therapist, driver, personal shopper, and even security, all within one position.

The workload is intense, especially on day shift, which does significantly more work than nights, yet day and night shifts are paid the same aside from a small night premium. For a role in a “healthcare” setting, the compensation should be much higher considering what staff are dealing with daily.

Management was disorganized, particularly around scheduling. I ultimately left due to pay and scheduling issues. After giving my two weeks’ notice, management did not acknowledge it at all — no response, no goodbye, and no exit interview. This lack of professionalism was disappointing, especially after the effort and commitment I gave to the company.

Overall:
Great coworkers, but poor pay, disorganization, and lack of appreciation made this an unsustainable workplace.

A typical day involved managing high clinical responsibility with very little meaningful support from leadership. Management and HR consistently failed to address serious workplace concerns, leaving staff to navigate harmful and unprofessional workplace dynamics on their own. The workplace culture was toxic and psychologically unsafe, with certain behaviors tolerated despite their negative impact on staff wellbeing. Leadership demonstrated poor communication, lack of accountability, and a clear disconnect from the realities of front-line clinical work. The hardest part of the job was the lack of support and the unhealthy work environment created by both leadership failures and tolerated workplace behaviors. The only rewarding aspect of the role was working with the patients themselves, who deserved far better support from the organization.

As Support you are tasked with being the liaison between patients and their MRP. You are there to provide Customer service to the patients- registration, appointment booking, sample collection and processing, updating EMR . 

Working here you are confronted with just how substantial the drug crisis is and just how varied its origins are. As support staff you get to meet those who are trying to make a change and you are there to facilitate that change. The most rewarding part of this job is watching  patients transform their lives. 

Patients can be a handful at times and it is one of the challenges of this position. You have to be cognitive of your own personal biases and learn to see the patients and not their attitudes or problems.

Management and staff are supportive of your role and the overall workplace culture is positive.

I have learnt so much from being at this organisation through my interaction with patients, staff and management, that I would recommend working here.

If I could give less than a 1 star to this company, I would!

The only thing positive about working for this company is the wonderful patients you get to work with, they really make it worth it!

From the incredibly pathetic wage you make, to the horrible treatment you are forced to endure from some of the staff that work there, it truly was a stressful experience to say the least.

Management is the problem, therefore you have no chance, and patients are treated with the utmost disrespect I have ever witnessed!

Leaving was bitter sweet, as I miss being a part of the patients lives, however it is not worth going home with constant anxiety.

I have never worked for such a terrible company, one that continually demeanor's those less fortunate than themselves, I cannot for the life of me understand why they work there in the first place, except that they enjoy controlling others that are again less fortunate.

It was truly heartbreaking the things I witnessed, and I would never recommend this company to anyone!!

The woman training me hated my guts from the moment she met me for no reason. The nurses at the clinics in town kept trying to get me fired, even though I did my job nearly perfectly and sent out everything they needed. Other coworkers would argue just because they finished their work and they're bored.
My boss harassed two other female colleagues and myself, on three separate occasions, in three different manners. One girl left early one day and quit overnight without notice because one of the pharmacists was harassing her.
I advised HR and all they did was give him "sensitivity training" and he no longer spoke to any of us, which made things difficult as he was also a pharmacist.

For the good stuff, I met some good people! I've made amazing friends out of working here, all the young people that worked there quit at relatively the same time for different reasons and we still enjoy each others company.

OATC management does nothing to improve the treatment of patients. Patients are treated according to the mood of staff. No manager on site to correct this behaviour. Policies are occasionally followed, but are reinforced with certain patients. No patient advocate to address patient concerns. They had let go of all counselors on a couple occasions. Little possibility of advancement for support staff. Minimum or no pay raise. Low pay. Most clinics are represented by the Union and therefore pay union dues. A cumulative Health spending account instead of benefits. No bonuses. Staff outings to raise staff moral. If you care about making a positive difference and improving patient lives, this may not be the job for you. Keep in mind, there are many OATC in Ontario. I am not speaking for all clinics.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Nurse 101 salaries reported	$29.17 per hour
Support staff 1 salary reported	$19.00 per hour
Patient care coordinator 83 salaries reported	$19.25 per hour
Counselor 3 salaries reported	$26.17 per hour
Addiction counselor 12 salaries reported	$25.90 per hour

Working at Canadian Addiction Treatment Centres: company overview and reviews

Canadian Addiction Treatment Centres

Canadian Addiction Treatment Centres ratings

Popular jobs at Canadian Addiction Treatment Centres

Salary satisfaction

Job seeker tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected