The leadership at this agency will do anything to save a dime, up to and including using one person to cover multiple cost centers alone, while still collecting funding for several support workers (they don't provide any incentive to take on the workload of 3 people, even when they are being compensated for such). There is a lack of transparency in upper management, and they pull shady and haphazard practices to keep client funding without providing adequate supports. I have spent my entire adult life working for this agency, and in the last few years (under new leadership) the company has not been ethical in its approach. They decided to close my house recently and cited "staffing shortages". Right now we are finally fully staffed with a 1:2 DSP-client ratio on both sides of the house I work at (2 separate cost centers). For several months of the last 2 years--total 12/24--they had me working alone with 6 clients (2 cost centers, 3 clients each) for my entire 48 hour weekend shift! While they were collecting funding for at least 3 of me, yet refused to give me any additional incentive or compensation. The clients suffered the most--increased falls, decreased community inclusion, decreased 1-on-1 attention and care. They did not notify employees or guardians (or SCs for that matter) that they were closing the house, instead sending clients on surprise visits with strangers trying to haphazardly and hastily place them with SLPs they had no familiarity with (these SLPs are from another country and English is not their first language). I assume they choose to place with these SLPs rather than offering it to staff who have worked with the clients 20+ years because they get away with paying them less than what they are entitled to with SLP funding. When the state and families were notified of these shady practices and pushed back, Duet terminated services for people who have received supports from them the last 20 years. They have systematically and coldly displaced hundreds of clients over the last 2 years, kicking them out of their homes and robbing them of any stability and continuity of care. Long-term employees are viewed as a burden of cost and are not valued--in fact treated with disdain and continuously picked at and dumped on until they finally resign. Several people were left without jobs after dedicating decades of their lives to the agency and keeping them afloat during covid and staffing crises. Debbie Herbel is a criminal and I hope she faces retribution one day for all of the terrible things she's done for the sake of making more money.
