Most people who try to do my job get burned out in under 6 months. They come into this field thinking they are going to heal and cure but end up feeling like they aren’t making a difference. I think this is mostly due to them making two separate but equally important realizations.
First off, they neglect to take into account that people change slowly, especially kids with special needs. The people who burn out often feel like the kids keep making same mistakes without any change at all. They see a kid yelling, swearing, and getting violent, which may have been what they have seen for the first month at their new job.
A perfect example would be the case of a girl who lives on the unit that I work on. She has lived at the program for the past 3 years and will most likely live in some sort of program until she is an adult. This girl was basically a feral child when she arrived and has improved dramatically. She can do all of her own ADLs now, she can make her own food, use words to advocate for her needs (usually), and recognize/label some of the emotions that she feels. She continues to have issues with dealing with her own emotions, especially anxiety around social interactions. She continues to swear, yell racial slurs, become violent towards staff and peers, and attempt to commit varying acts of SI. All of these behaviors have been exhibited since her arrival but now they happen a couple of times a month instead of a dozen times a week. The new staff that is going to burn out is only going to see these behaviors and how they are not socially acceptable. The realization has to be made that change is slow and that there is no ‘quick fix’ in mental health.
The second issue is something that even veteran staff continue to struggle with. This mostly has to do with the kids whose families were somehow related to the abuse or neglect they received. An example would be a mother that chains her toddler to furniture for days at a time and then only unchained her child when men come over to ‘use’ her. It’s horrible to think about and may very well be the hardest part of the job for some people. This is not the case for me and most of the veteran staff. The absolute worst part of the job for me is when a child like the one described is in crisis and starts to scream that they want to go home. Many of our children do this and it pulls at your heart-strings every single time. This is something that new staff are never able to handle unless they are able to make the realization that every child is going to want a ‘home’ no matter how messed up of a living situation they came from.
Every new staff that works in intensive residential treatment will have the grapple with their own personal issues as they start their new job. Most people will figure out whether they can continue to do this work between the 5 to 8 month time frame. There is an extremely high turnover rate in this industry for a reason. If it was easy then everyone would be doing it.
Hopefully this has been somewhat informative to anyone reading it. The next topic covered will be focused on rewards (or lack thereof) and incentive plans, which is something mildly controversial.
