Pros
It is a rewarding job, working with mental health residents. As someone that also suffers from mental illnesses, I enjoy to be there for these people as I wish others had through my life. Treating the residents this way, I know they appreciate my presence. Also, it is not a difficult job, it's pretty easy and for the most part, you can choose how much effort you put in. If you're fine with driving places, it's also part of the job to take the residents out on basically field trips which can be a lot of fun to do on the clock. The pay is much better than it was a year ago too.
Cons
Despite the company and management's claims that the residents are the priority, in action that just isn't true. Staff often complain about and demean the residents. They worry more about their social lives or cleaning than actual being there for the residents. In my program, despite racial, cultural, and mental health bias training, prejudiced words are tolerated by the management. Favoritism is rampant and it's always with the staff that share the manager's shift. Work gets ignored or stalled while those staff can have 75% of their shift on a break, but the staff on other shifts are expected to pick up their slack and given the excuse 'shared tasks.' Management also does not care to put in the effort to plan out outings for the residents. Also, the company would rather be as minimally staffed as possible. I have had emergencies happen because I was the only present staff and other emergencies that I had to delay actions to take because the manager didn't care that on call staff had worked a 16 hour shift the previous day. Also they expect you to be available all shifts, then guilt trip and make excuses if you express that you cannot work a shift due to disability accommodation. For a company that deals in caring for mental health patients, they have no understanding or consideration towards employees mental health