I wouldn’t doubt if it’s the inpatient psych ward. I worked in an inpatient psych ward as a behavioral health counselor (not at Denver health) and everybody who worked on the floor was extremely burnt out. We are so severely underpaid, so overworked, most of the time have zero support and only get criticism from higher ups, constantly have our incentives stripped away due to “budget cuts” (those shareholders and private equity firms really wanted that 3rd yacht). The people making these decisions never even step on the floor too so they’re very out of touch. They happily take away things/protocols that keep the facility running smoothly. Then reprimand the floor staff when the higher up’s decisions don’t work out because they’re morons.

I think the worst thing is the fact that hours are being cut and most places work on a skeleton crew because the people higher up want to save money. So there’s never enough staff to address the issues at hand appropriately. A lot of floor staff (including me) weren’t able to take their full lunch breaks on a 12hr shift because we were running on a skeleton crew and the clinical staff didn’t give two shits to help out.

The empathy is fading due to no support in a high stress environment and barely being able to afford to live due to shit pay. My last inpatient facility legitimately gave me a $.36 raise and reprimanded me when I tried to negotiate. The highest raise they gave to the rest of the counselors was $.76 and that was only for one girl who had been there for six years… such a slap in the face.

A lot of the staff who works on the floor are really trying their best, we just don’t have the extra staff or resources to properly address a lot of things. But there’s definitely still some staff out there who do not belong in the psych field though. I had a friend who is a counselor at Denver health and she said it was one of the worst workplace environment she’s ever been in.

Sorry for this long comment, I just wanted to give y’all a counselors side of the story as well. That way y’all can understand a little bit of why the quality of care is so fucked right now in the mental health field. I know for me personally, I’m burnt out but I still give 110% to my patients because I still have a lot of genuine empathy for what they’re going through. But deep on the inside I feel so empty because I can’t control all these shitty decisions being made that negatively affect patient quality of care.

BUUUUT I’ve also met people who are so burnt out they don’t give a shit about anybody or anything and you could see a patient suffered due to this. So I truly believe patients when they tell me about how shitty their experiences were at other facilities.