Chestnut Health Systems Reviews

Pros

Great team of people, infrastructure and family orientation. Develop, implement, and helping others learn how to use evidence based practices.

Cons

Not a traditional academic environment

Pros

Healthcare Benefits. Work schedule. Client interaction.

Cons

Upper management continues to cut positions & dump more & more work onto employees constant turnover.

Pros

The job was very interesting; I learned so much working with the court team which included probation officers, attorneys, judges, and other mental health providers. The clients were valuable, creative individuals. I loved watching folks recover.

Cons

The agency is not set up to support clinicians providing direct service client care. Higher management is incredibly removed from the daily experience of providing therapy. The productivity demands are impossible to meet. There is a huge emphasis placed on hierarchy of employees as opposed to an emphasis placed on true mentorship, support, and team resources. Chestnut is where creativity goes to die. This agency is light years behind in terms of understanding languaging around diversity, inclusion, and support for folks who may feel marginalized. I once heard someone in very senior management say to a trans employee- "Oh my sister really gets into that lbgt rights thing." The only silver lining is that there are some "diamond studded" employees amongst the "rough." There is a general discomfort with experiential therapy modalities at Chestnut. This employer stopped matching my 401K during Covid, and the raise each year did not equal the increase in cost of living.

Pros

great people to work with

Cons

need to pay match with others

Pros

They offer decent vacation time, and the learning experiences with a variety of clients are helpful for future jobs.

Cons

The workload is unsustainable with heavy pressure to get tasks done by unrealistic deadlines, the turnover rate is alarmingly high, management is incompetent, the pay is insultingly low, the health insurance is unaffordable, the “Christmas bonus” is an Amazon gift card based on how long you’ve been there ranging from 10-35 dollars, no one listens when staff attempt to express concerns about the barriers to getting tasks accomplished, the raises are only 2.5% and recently have been being denied. There’s little communication in changes in departments and in staff. If you’re looking for a place to learn and get experience, I would stay maybe a year or two, but overall I would not recommend working for this employer. It was never perfect but with intensely increased demand for services this agency quickly unraveled with no consideration or assistance to employees to attempt to adjust deadlines and tasks to the higher demand and instead add more tasks, which (partially) led to an even higher turnover rate. Take heed before you accept a position here.

Pros

I get to make my own schedule as a PRN staff. I got a raise so far due to them increasing the salaries which is very good. I have a good supportive supervisor. I also got a nice size retention bonus. The work is rewarding, frustrating at times, but if you enjoy helping people you will be fine.

Cons

The only issue I have is as a Crisis Intervention Specialist you have to use your own car. Now I live in St. Louis so I'm often doing quit a bit of traveling therefore I wished they reimbursed for mileage coming from your home, instead of one of their Illinois offices.

Pros

The benefits (PTO and insurance) were one of the main reasons I stayed at this copany for as long as I did. They make up for lack of pay with time off. If you have just graudated and need a place to start, this could be a place for you to get experience.

Cons

The pay is a huge downside, and the way the organization is run is a con. Chestnut had a huge turnover during/after the pandemic, and I think the way they treated their employees is a huge reason why. They were furloughing employees if they were not meeting productivity, which is somewhat out of the staff control if clients don't keep appointments. I feel that Chestnut is a sinking ship, and they prioritize their higher ups lining their pocketbooks rather than supporting the staff and clients receiving services.

Pros

The only reason to work here is if you’re in desperate need of a job.

Cons

It’s a miracle that the entire community doesn’t stand up and shame this place—which is probably only the case because the people who work here are so passionate about helping the people this company says it serves. The recovery program is so backwards it isn’t even funny. The curriculum is old and goofy and you don’t even need any particular training to teach it. The supervisor of the unit almost never came down to the unit, but did spend most of her time watching the cameras. Any time she didn’t like what she saw, she would call the unit to yell at you. Pretty unhinged. Everyone on this unit lost their job when chestnut announced, with a two week notice, that they were closing the unit and moving it downstate. The pay is LAUGHABLE at best. I was paid around 11 an hour with a B.S. and the hardest working woman on the unit at the time had been working there for a few years and only made 25,000 a year. Salary discussion was, of course, discouraged (illegal). I’ve seen people with masters in psychology be offered 30,000 to work here. Full time employees on the unit usually had second jobs AT Chestnut just to make ends meet. It’s sick. This company doesn’t give a single crap about the people that work their butts off to serve the hardest hit folks in our community. We should run them out of town.

Pros

Some schedule Flexibility, you can use the company vehicles, and clients are nice for the most part but 90% of them don’t want MH or SUD assistance. Pretty good parking + the facility is always pretty clean. There’s some great people here but the turn over is SO high… try not to get attached. This does mean that there’s always opportunities elsewhere in the company to move to.

Cons

Lack of training, always understaffed, will pull you into other programs to help out without compensation, employees frequently talk about how they’re going to drink on the weekends while at work, gossipy/cliquey among employees, and lack of supervisor support. The pay is not good and their health insurance is expensive for the low wages

Pros

Decent benefits, paid time off/vacation, retention reward after 6 months, Christmas bonus, employee appreciation

Cons

The housing department was completely unorganized. The pay was too low for the workload that was expected. Lack of staffing caused an extreme amount of work, too much for any one person. Training received was not helpful for duties expected to perform.