It's community mental health, therefore: high caseload, lots of paperwork, and a challenging population to work with, though I enjoyed meeting a variety of clients. But I came to realize that this is not the setting in which I want to operate as a therapist since with a number of clients I felt more like a social worker than a therapist, with little opportunity to really dig in to the mental health aspect of things. If this is the population you are passionate about serving, which includes making referrals for med management or housing, great, but if not, go somewhere else as I have decided to do. Lastly, the need for 'meeting productivity' is just one more stressor on clinicians who already have challenging work to do. It makes it feel as if the people who are being served are just numbers, and not people. This is a good place to get your feet wet in mental health work, but I see it as a stepping stone for many to other settings and career goals.
