FHCSD employee confirms that mental health programs are "designed for interns" and clinicians are expected to leave after becoming licensed

 A post made by a former mental health clinician at Family Health Centers for San Diego confirms what we have been hearing elsewhere-  that FHCSD employees are expected to leave after about two years and the organization has been designed to prevent career advancement.  In this case, the former employee says that the program was "designed for interns to get hours" - which fits with the emerging picture of an organization that profits from the lowest possible care. 

Since this post was made in mid-2018 we can't know that all this information is still true - particularly about the paperwork and computer system, but we do know all evidence points to an organization that uses cultural expectations and other levers to get employees to move on after they have finished about two years of being overworked for low pay.   More recent examples will be posted but this describes the situation better than most, and we have no reason to think things have changed.   

The employee who posted this also made light of the ridiculous "exceptional in every way" corporate slogan, and instead truthfully posted that they are "not exceptional in any way".   

This post must have hit a nerve, because there was a response title "Official response from Family Health Centers of San Diego" that we have not seen on any response.  Strangely, this did not address the most serious allegation, that the program was designed for interns and licensed clinicians were expected to leave after the received their license" - presumably because they would them be worth more than FHCSD wants to pay, and their business model involved cramming untrained workers with Medi-Cal recipients and instead addresses the "paperwork" issue and blames the County of San Diego:

This posting references those few staff who see patients at FHCSD under one of the County mental health contracts. Unfortunately, due to the requirements of the County contract, there is a significantly greater amount time needed for paperwork and administrative responsibilities. 

It is common and part of the culture of FHCSD to blame others for their own shortfalling and the County of San Diego doesn't let them get away with pure profiteering as the Federal Government, the source of funding for most of their sub-standard operations that apparently provides zero oversight over this obviously corrupt "non-profit".  The author used the first person "I" in the response, so given that and the lofty title given to this post we think it is safe to assume this was written by FHCSD CEO Fran Butler-Cohen, as with this comment about the FHCSD Personal Department.  

Additionally, I have found that HR provides exceptional services at FHCSD. striking that difficult balance between supporting employees and protecting the organization.

That sounds like the description of an HR department in fully under the control of the CEO, and in discussing the "difficult balance between supporting employees and protecting the organization" (meaning her) she conveniently forgot to mention what they call their "patients" - which is very much fitting with the character and culture of this organization.  Her central point - seemingly completely unrelated to the criticisms made by the original poster, was even more revealing: 

We are looking forward to Governor Brown allowing the State of CA legislation to take effect, which would provide the same status to Marriage and Family Therapists as LCSWs. Like LCSWs, this legislation would recognize Marriage and Family Therapists as billable therapists for Medi-Cal patients. 

This made it clear the the CEO considers this to be nothing more than a "supply chain" issus - she can't find enough cheap "therapists" to be able to profit off Medi-Cal recipients so she will find some another inappropriate profession that can be found in the market cheaply to use as a "reasonable substitute".   The objective is not to help people resolve their issues- in fact in many reported cases they make them FAR worse, but rather to provide justification for billing Medi-Cal while providing barely acceptical standards of care. 

RG

FILE: FHCSD - Indeed - billing for marriage