when the director, josephine was verbally abusive to clients. when she would be upset or stressed, she would slam things around. if she was in the kitchen, she would slam drawers, pots, anything. she was not allowed to run the group therapies - as the other councillors did not want her to. she was only there to make lunch and supper and do admissions for new clients. all clients are supposed to get one on one therapy sessions daily and one weekly one on one ptsd therapy session. the thing about that is, there was only one councillor there from 9 till 4. the first week, the councillors were leading the group therapy sessions at 10-11 and then 1-2. they took time for lunch 12-1. so the one on ones were not getting done. maybe 2 people a day would get theirs. there were 4 of us there and no daily one on ones. no ptsd sessions either. the next week things changed as the clients complained about sessions. josephine moved the councillor to do that all day and she ran group. the group therapy mainly consisted of you tube videos of 'TED talks' and a handout that they read to you. the evening councillor did the 630 pm group. no one on ones were offered by the evening councillor.
there are many things not working in the house - 2 showers have no hot water, squirrels get into the house. there were 2 in the ceiling of the basement. josephine confronted and verbally abused a client to the point of them wanting to leave because the suggestion was given to her to call poulens. the building was last checked 2 years ago she said. this altercation caused tension with all the clients - at this point there were 7.
when josephine did group, she would get visibly upset and irritated when there would be someone making noise, or if they had to get up to use the bathroom - however, when the councillors did group, she would often interrupt the sessions just to make her presence known she was there. she would be extremely loud. there was one point where she got upset and was banging her fists on the table, triggering many of those that had traumas of abuse. she wanted her night staff who worked 9pm-9am to have all clients woken up, breakfast put out, table set in her particular order, have everyone fed and everything cleaned up by the time she got there at 9. the night staff were so stressed out about making sure they had everything up to her standards and were fearful they would be fired. there was one big blow out between her and a client - it was literally a screaming match between the two. there was no regard from her that other clients were in the home and were hearing and witnessing what was happening. that client ended up leaving shortly after that. there was another situation where she apparently received an email from a client who left and she was in the office with a social worker student doing their practicum. josephine was destroying the office, throwing things, yelling and screaming with the office door open. again, there was no regard for her to control her anger with clients in the house. she was extremely unprofessional and caused stress and anxiety and triggered many clients every day she was there. there are different rules for the clients. with intake, bags are supposed to be checked - that doesn't happen to everyone. one client always got her bags checked when she got things from family delivered - she was the only one that got checked. pets are apparently allowed. a client was able to bring her cat there - the clients roommate was not even asked or told about this to see if there were concerns of allergies. no one was informed about this - again concern with allergies. vapes said they were not allowed on the website - 2 clients frequently used vapes.
the other councillors are not allowed to make italian dishes on weekends - spaghetti for example as she gets offended when those dishes are not made properly. she doesn't allow coffee after noon. the place ran out of toilet paper and clients were stealing from other bathrooms and using kleenex. josephine did group for 2 weeks - in those two weeks, there was little therapy other than the ted talks and the handout, the rest of the time was used by her to tell stories of her life and her traumas and her agencies.
there needs to be more than one councillor per shift there. if one is busy doing a session, and a client has a crisis or needs help, there is no one. josephine is not one to go to for advise, she just said its normal for the ups and downs of withdrawal.
in my intake, i was never asked by anyone why i was there, what my problems were, what i needed help with, what my traumas were, what my addictions were. i had to wait for my one on one which was about 4 days in. i was finally given a binder with the rules for the group therapy, the policies and procedures etc until after the 2nd week. (i kept asking). on my intake, i was not given a discharge date. i was just told 3 weeks. the other clients said that she doesn't count the first 2 days. read more
