My sister-in-law who has Downs Syndrome was a resident at Melmark for over 30 years. In the beginning Melmark was a different place, small, resident centered. We could not have asked for a better place for her. However, over the years Melmark got bigger, the state got involved, big government oversight progressed. Endless forms, matrices of objectives etc. to show the government that the school was in compliance. The need for government money to subsidize residents who could not pay grew exponentially. Likewise those that could pay were charged more and more. The school bureaucracy got top heavy with dozens of PHDs raking in BIG salaries and a army of paper pushers underneath them. Resident centered went out the window. Residents were now units attached to revenue. We saw my sister in law's bills double in a years time while the care was reduced. When we told Melmark that we were going to go broke paying for her care we were told "when you run out of money you can apply for government aid". We were in shock that this was their strategy - get the government to pay for it. Melmark would have taken advantage of us for as long as we let them. We removed my sister in law immediately into a new facility. We are so happy she is in a much better place where "resident centered" in practiced everyday. Melmark has outlived its' once wonderful mission. read more

This place is awful I was employed there once and a male worker was harrassing and abusing me one day, so I thought that if I reported him to the mangers they'll get rid of him. But in instead they fired me and told me "if I haven't asked him a question in the first place I wouldn't have been hit, so I reported them to HR and not even HR did anything about the guy that this works there til this day probably abusing and harassing other co-workers and maybe even the children. They also have a overnight shift where the employees supposed to be awake watching and checking on the children when you're really sleeping or on your phone watching movies and eating the food supply brought in by families. They don't clean their facilities thoroughly especially due to COVID-19 at time I was there, They didn't tell us who had COVID or what houses may have been affected. They also exposed a worker to covid without informing her about what she was dealing with, and even thought they are a non-restricted facility, they still have techniques to restrain children and adults. I didn't feel safe working there at night and also been harassed by the overnight male supervisors, I've requested to work I different homes multiple times and they did nothing about it. This is no place for no one. read more