Vantaggi
The clients were the best part of this job and the only reason I kept going back for as long as I did. (Which was less than a year, and much longer than most make it.)
Svantaggi
**A quick summary of my time at this for-profit dumpster fire can be found at the end of this review. TEP's (alleged) mission statement is "...to provide exceptional, individualized care leading to recovery from eating disorders". Nothing about the way this organization is run is "exceptional", and very rarely did I witness "individualized care" in action -- just a lot of inaction. Low pay for the amount of work BHTs do -- starting at $19-21/hour to keep people alive. When asked about getting raises, BHTs were met with excuses and empty promises (such as "opportunities" for a laughably small pay increases after completing a training that wasn't available to employees until 9 months into the job -- which, most people don't make it that long, as this company is such a mess.) Leadership is full of unreliable, inconsistent, and uncaring people. God forbid management helps on the floor -- and when they do, they're clueless on how to treat other human beings, making them entirely useless anyway. Never mind their complete inability to handle issues within the company, such as hiring competent employees, assisting when understaffing (which was frequent), training other departments on how to engage with clients in a kind and considerate way, etc. At some point during my employment, this for-profit multimillion dollar company decided to stop providing menstrual products and postage stamps for a residential house in Minnesota. This location had children and adolescents (aged 10-18) coming in from around the country, many of whom had to be sent items from their families. There was never any communication as to why this decision was made or where that money was going, which is admittedly none of my business, but you'd think they would at least openly reallocate their resources to fund building improvements (such as proper security provided for one side of the building, but not the other, even after our census increased), better food options (ironically, the foods oftentimes made even the employees nauseous and sick--imagine how someone with an eating disorder feels), or paying their employees a livable wage. The Emily Program prides itself on being this inclusive, diverse space, but has no idea on how to educate its workers on things like gender identity (there were multiple instances of transphobia and misgendering of children from the nursing department), racial identity (TEP teaches employees that Black kids are more likely to experience eating disorders yet doesn't offer additional or specialized resources for Black clients), or other mental health issues/traumas (nursing doesn't bother with active self-harm or passive suicidal ideation; there is limited treatment for common comorbidities like substance abuse/addiction, sexual trauma, and other types of abuse/neglect at home). Finally, we had a horrifying amount of "frequent fliers", which isn't uncommon in mental health care. But I would argue that, on far too many occasions, this organization set up these kids to fail. Discharging them too soon, sending them to a lower level of care when they clearly weren't ready to leave residential, focusing on weight restoration/management over the very real psychological component of eating disorders... This company profits off of dying children -- and on a larger scale, dying people in general. I can't speak for the adult programs, but as someone who advocates for vulnerable communities, such as sick children, and to be constantly reprimanded for doing so because management is too lazy, or too heartless, to self-reflect and make changes on the teams who get paid more to care less, I have to say I'm deeply unimpressed with and frankly disgusted by The Emily Program. TLDR: I do not recommend this job to anyone who cares about making a difference, unless you're willing to be targeted and wrongfully accused of things you didn't do, punished for following the same processes as other workers, and even terminated for speaking against the injustices that happen within this company.
