I been here since last year,ever since I got my ESA I've been nit picked on constantly, I had my debit cards come up missing and had to be replaced they tracked my comings and goings. And now I went through to many case managers trying to get a place,it's almost nearly impossible to do they said they'd help but when I ask they are to busy either playing games or watching movies these people working here don't care about you only the money and the powers that they think they have over you.Not saying anything bad ,I call it like I see it
This place is a nightmare.
I've worked in community mental health for over 10 years at multiple agencies and this was the most chaotic, toxic, and stressful job I've ever had. All of the former leadership either quit or were fired, so no one knows how anything works. You have to figure it out on your own. You're forced to go to countless meetings where the "leadership" talks in circles, refusing to make decisions only they can make. You are inundated with emails that have nothing to do with you, but you get added anyway. The program director is incompetent, with no previous experience working in an outpatient setting. He isn't even a therapist. He has no experience using the EMR and refuses to learn so you can't go to him with any questions. The only other person you can ask is in Portland. He ignored staff until he got in trouble from his boss, then mandated weekly "supervision" where he talked about himself for the first 30 minutes. He has no boundaries and told me very personal details about his life like how he got married and divorced to a person who works at Columbia Care twice in a row and is now getting married to another person who also works here. I don't want to know about how messy your life is. We aren't friends, be professional. He says you can tell him anything, but when you do he uses it against you.
Everyone gossips behind your back, using manipulation and fake tears to get out of doing their job because they know how easy it is to manipulate the director. He takes gossip as gospel. There are no boundaries. The CEO of the organization was married to a Proud Boy, the head of HR is also married to a White Supremacist. The one diversity officer they had was harassed so bad she left. They throw money at you because turnover is so high. This job took a huge toll on my mental health, everyday I was struggling just to hold on.
The clients are extremely abusive, and you get punished if you dare set a boundary with them. There are no security guards, the front door doesn't lock, no cameras, clients bring in weapons and threaten to harm the counselors. But the CEO can't be bothered to invest in staff safety. The "crisis line" is staffed by unlicensed, untrained peers who have no supervision. There is no curriculum for groups, no training for new staff, no sense of community. you are completely on your own. Might as well just work at a private practice. I took this job because the pay was descent, but the cost to my wellbeing was not worth it.
Most of the counselors aren't even licensed. I have my license and the director tried to force me to supervise staff for free when it actually cost's $75-$150 an hour. One of the supervisors asked me how I was doing after my first month and I said it was difficult, she took it personally... started crying and said I was not grateful for all the work she put into the program. I spent the rest of my own supervision being her emotional caretaker and walking on eggshells. You cannot be honest. You have to lie and say everything is fine or you will be accused of not being a team player. They hired a consultant to fix the problems, but two years later had to hire them again because nothing had changed.
The toxic, incompetence goes all the way to the top. The only reason this place hasn't been shut down is because Medford is desperate for mental health facilities. The director asks you about burnout, but when you give clear suggestions on how he can help he says sorry can't do that. So why are you asking if you don't actually care? He stays in meetings all day to look busy but when he actually has a task he "delegates" it to one of his staff. He is lazy, inexperienced, and has preferential treatment from the CEO so he gets away with being useless. I read the bad reviews for Columbia Care but ignored them. Hopefully someone else will read this and stay away.
This is not a good company to work for. I applied there because of what I read on their website, specifically,
"ColumbiaCare is in the business of changing people’s lives. We help people become self-sufficient to the greatest degree possible, to experience wellbeing, and meet their full potential in their everyday lives.
This absolutely does not happen. Residents are ignored and left to isolate in their room. Staff can drink or get high on the job and not get reprimanded. Staff's day is wasted on watching television, cooking the meals and playing on electronics.
It's a complete waste of time trying to make changes in the environment to improve the functionality and structure, because management doesn't seem to care. Terrible training or none at all.
Review from Guidestar
The company treats its employees like dogs and most pass on the vibe to clients. There's one nice guy working there. He'll most likely leave quick. Overall, Columbia Care lacks complete ethics and sympathy. The company prioritizes money over safety. Never bring a housing manager a concern about safety. I know mine contacted the landlord, who inspected my apartment for "damages." In other words, he checked to see the "damages" he feared I caused. I was punished for reporting a safety concern. I'm living with a leaky refrigerator b/c they mistreat clients for reporting things renters usually report to a landlord to fix. The landlord has fixed nothing. Reporting things gives landlords the free pass to abuse clients. Really.
There are housing managers who will be mean to clients for weeks if life doesn't go Columbia Care's way. Stuff happens. Things break. Life is full of conflicts. I'm worried about people who are vulnerable to stress. Columbia Care is working with Mental Health clients. For goodness sake, if you're a relative or caregiver--never let these workers work with your somebody vulnerable to depression. Please! Step in and say, "here's my cell phone. Talk to me instead."
After anybody gets done talking to some of these people, they will feel 3 inches high. The rudest cashiers are 100 times nicer. I was feeling anxious once and called myself stupid. My worker said, "Yeah." She chews me out about not being social enough, she makes sarcastic jokes about me being isolated. Hardy har. I have hanged up the phone and cried for hours after talking to this woman. At least she got a laugh out of my pain. I'm surprised some of these people are allowed to work with mental health clients. If Columbia Care offered a mental health crisis line it would be the Rodney Dangerfield joke, "I called suicide prevention and they put me on hold."