Frustrating - b/c of the community mental health model & SoIL's unreasonable documentation expectations.
Pros
There were some rewarding moments that made the exhaustive hours of paperwork, and emotionally draining struggle to make a difference - worth it sometimes. When you had those positive experiences, it reminded you why you chose to go into this field. There were also a lot of great people working in the mental health & substance abuse departments who genuinely loved the work they were doing and I had an opportunity to learn so much from them. I also worked with some amazing community partners who both respected and relied on me and many of my colleagues to help them navigate the system & empathized with the challenges we faced working with this population.
Cons
Some of the management was so focused on the business side of things they forgot why we were doing this work to begin with. They were unable & unwilling to advocate for staff to administration on coming up with reasonable accommodations for documentation. They were no longer client centered. Additionally, there seemed to be a stronger focus on pushing medication as a fix for all problems as opposed to trying to figure out what the root of the problem was. Too many kids on too many Meds! Also, needed to come up with a better system for referrals, assessments, and implementing innovative (and more time efficient) techniques & strategies for documentation. They needed to LISTEN to the ideas of the clinicians who were actually doing the work!