Grafton integrated health network Reviews

Grafton is my first foray into the field of behavioral health/special education/mental health. I was hired as a Direct Support Professional (DSP) in September 2018.
Like many of you reading this review, I had heard a lot of negativity about Grafton. For years I listened to these stories and heeded their warnings. I wish I hadn t.
You do not go into this job blindly. You must complete two weeks of hands-on training prior to working with the clients. A lot of invaluable information is packed into those two weeks, and somehow the instructors are able to present it all in such a way that you will remember it, pull from it and put it to use.
Grafton, as a company, offers competitive salaries, great medical benefits, a 401K plan with a very respectable match and financial assistance for continuing your education. They also offer a generous PTO allowance and many opportunities for overtime, not to mention free, healthy and tasty meals.
The staff at Grafton are all here for the same reason, the clients. I have had an opportunity to provide support to each shift and program at the Berryville campus. I have seen numerous staff deal with extremely difficult and trying situations involving clients, all-the-while maintaining their composure and consistently treating the clients with respect and compassion.
Additionally, I have had a chance to work for each supervisor at the Berryville campus. Each one of them have made me feel appreciated. Not once have I not been thanked .Imagine that, being thanked for doing your job, it is very rare in any workplace. Anytime I have been asked to do something, the request has always started with either please or would you mind. This does not end with the supervisors, it continues straight up the ladder. My time, efforts, opinions and contributions are never taken for granted, I always feel like a valued member of Team Grafton.
The clients at Grafton are some of the most unique and special individuals you will ever come across. I work a lot of extra hours, not because I have to, but because I enjoy every moment I spend with the clients at the Berryville campus. Once you have worked with the clients, after you have read their files that describe their conditions and the trauma most have suffered, everything you have heard about Grafton and the horrors the staff endure at the hands of the clients disappears, and you begin to empathize. The majority of Grafton s clients have been through more already than, thankfully, most of us will experience in our lifetime. They want and deserve, respect, kindness, compassion and most of all love. I have found that if you give these basic things to the client, they will give it back tenfold.
I cannot say that this job is all unicorns and daisies, no job is. There have been days my patience is stretched to the limit and I have one good nerve left that is being plucked at, particularly after being aggressed upon by a client. I can say, however, that every day, good or bad, I am rewarded. My reward may be gaining the trust of a combative client, it can be hearing a client say they want to be just like me when they grow up, it has been the smile that breaks out on a particular client s face when I walk in the room, it is a basically non-verbal client shouting my name each time they see me or it may be having a client say I love you and thank you for helping them process through a very difficult time. I have been working for 30+ years and this is, by far, the most rewarding job I have ever had. I come to work knowing I have a purpose and I leave work knowing I have accomplished something, that I have made a difference.

I would NEVER recommend anyone to work for this company. The employees are hard working people but this company does not take care of their people. They use them, work them to the bone, and don t pay what the employees deserve.

This place dont take care for you they dont care how sick you are they will not see you and there food is disgusting and it makes you sick!!

Negative 1 star. Former emoloyee of Grafton. I had worked there for about 2 years and they treat there employees horrible. There is no support for there employee's, training, staffing wise etc. There are suppose to be at least 2 staff in each unit-sometimes 3. However, that is not the case. Usually every weekend I would have a full unit (7 clients) and no partner. I haven't had a partner in over 6 months even though they keep promising me one. On the weekends we work 14 hours a day, yet staff do not get breaks. There is barely time to go to the bathroom, if your luckily enough to get a staff to cover your unit. We are not allowed to bring in outside food and eat it in front of the clients. You can eat the Grafton food, yet it has personally made me sick multiple times and has made other staff sick from eating it as well. Besides everything listed above there is no accountability for the clients. The program there moving towards is a "comfort versus control", yet there is nothing in any program they run that deals with accountability and teaching basic rights and wrongs. There is never enough staff to be able to take the clients on outings, and when staff do put in for them, they get cancelled. Our turn over rate is around 86%. A lot of the issues stem from management or directly from the curator of the building. There is no communication with anyone so staff are constantly being overridden by PSS, management, and various supervisors. Staff get yelled at by managers./supervisors in front of the clients and there is no backing for the staff. During crisis situations PSS (program support) is called. Normally there job is to respond and help with a crisis. However, quite often there is know one to help respond with crisis situations because there are not enough staff. In some of those cases staff have gotten injured because know one (not even managers) came to help. At this job the risk is not worth the reward because of the way staff are treated and talked to.

This job would not be so bad is there was communication and SUPPORT for the staff. The facility is run by someone who doesn't have a degree in any kind of behavioral science, psychology, sociology, etc.
Also if you got hired you would have to wait on a background check. There have been staff waiting at least a month for there background check to come back to even start shadowing, then you get to start.

The new hires that come in stay about a month and move on. Please don't let that be you! Its not even worth your time applying!
Even the bonus they promise you they tax so you don't actually get the full amount.

They also make up there own "positive" reviews. Fake from managers within the company.

I wish I could give this place zero stars. I was a patient there back in 2012 and the staff were abusive with the kids, it was not treatment focused, kids were always unruly and extremely violent and when I was being bullied and physically assaulted the staff told me to stop crying and get over it. I came out of that place with way more issues then I came it with. To this day I am still in therapy for some of the really traumatic things happened at grafton and how the staff allowed it to continually go on. Shame on the people who ran this place. There was also very little therapy and I learned nothing while in treatment