CARE Counseling Reviews

It can be a burnout environment. Fairly high caseload and low autonomy. Clients are clearly assigned based on schedules, not clinical fit or even, at times, scope of competence. You are told you can request to stop intakes when you are full, but that is only for temporary holds and the push to take more clients continues even when full. You are also encouraged to use your PTO to "cover" cancellations that pull you under weekly quota, even though CARE already recouped a cancellation fee from the client. There is not much time to connect with colleagues outside of the one-hour weekly consultation group and it can end up feeling lonely. There were a few billing and documentation practices that left me feeling on shaky ethical ground, and I'm confident that if I were ever in trouble CARE would have thrown me under the bus if it seemed like I would damage the company brand or bottom line. That, of course, is true of any company, but CARE is no exception. The company culture can be friendly and encouraging at best or cliquey, profit-hungry, and full of toxic positivity at worst. At the end of the day, it is a business and you feel that.

This is a company that is dedicated to making money over any values. I still have nightmares about the COO potentially canceling client appointments on my calendar to make me talk to him. He is an egotistical child that throws tantrums when clinicians advocate for client care. They engage in unethical billing practices (pressuring staff to bill IC if someone is “just a little bit anxious”, billing for two diagnostic assessments, etc) and force staff to use their PTO if they are not meeting quota. Their language around workplace culture is practically cult-like and they will tell you to not take lunch breaks to see more clients. Former employees have been speaking out against them and CARE leadership has called and threatened them with defamation suits. There are other places that will value you more.