Lela Barker

Review of Pathways transition programs, ...

SHORT VERSION: Disorganized. Unprofessional. No se...

SHORT VERSION: Disorganized. Unprofessional. No sense of urgency. Absolutely would not recommend.

LONG VERSION: I volunteer as a court-appointed special advocate (CASA) for children who have been removed from their homes for substantiated allegations of abuse or neglect. The child I'm currently advocating for was referred to Pathways for individual therapy in September of 2020. After the intake interview, it took 4 full weeks to be assigned to a therapist. During that time, the foster family continued to follow up with Pathways staff, letting them know that they were observing some worrisome behaviors and asking Pathways to be assigned ASAP to implement some support for this traumatized child. It shouldn't take anywhere close to 30 days to choose which staff member will take the case- the delay in care further stressed the foster placement.

The first few sessions were very promising, but that optimism came to a swift halt when the therapist failed to dial-in for a scheduled meeting with the foster mom on a Friday afternoon. Foster mom's followup email bounced back, which perplexed her. She contacted Pathways to inquire about what was going on, but did not hear back. Additional contact attempts on Monday went unresolved. And then the therapist failed to dial-in for the child's weekly therapy session on Tuesday afternoon (therapy is conducted virtually thanks to the pandemic).

Foster mom reached out to her only other contact at Pathways after the second missed appointment on Tuesday. She received an apologetic text that shed no light on what was happening, but offered to meet on Wednesday at 10:30am to explain. As of 10:50, no one from Pathways had dialed into that meeting either. Inexcusable.

I rang alarm bells up the ladder and was ultimately connected to Leigh, Pathway's Clinical Director. She was apologetic, but full of excuses. I stressed the importance of a quick assignment to a new therapist to re-establish care as quickly as possible, but Leigh continued to make excuses about why no one had contacted the foster family to share that they'd fired the therapist. Or why no one had responded with that information when the foster family repeatedly reached out to see what was going on. The solutions she offered moving forward didn't inspire any confidence, and she continued to circle back to deflect responsibility for all of the dropped balls.

If you're an agency that signs up to assist children in trauma, then I hope you'll rise to the occasion and hold yourselves to a high standard when serving this vulnerable population.