CONNECT Communities Reviews

Intense residents on occasion. Emergencies can happen semi-regularly. Pay range is high, but only goes up by $3~ at max. Interior Health rules and regulations can be hard to keep up with.

I lasted here 1.5 years (and only because of a couple amazing clients) and left because I was not valued or respected, got booked to work the full Christmas holidays for the second year in a row (when brand new employees had it off), and would not be given time off to see my mother before the holidays who would be going into the hospital over Christmas for a couple months. I was expected to work past my hours (and often through lunches and breaks) of work to help staff who were inexperienced or uncomfortable performing certain therapy tasks, then told I needed to manage my time better. There is no room for career growth and the compensation (I was making ~19$ an hour) is not worth the effort (often getting 7 people up and ready for the day with little help). They opened up an OTA/PTA role as a trial, and instead of giving it to someone who was in school for the role, gave it someone who was management's favourite. The therapists often expect you to do a lot of their roles, but then are not helpful and give minimal direction. When you ask for help or tell them something serious is going on with a client, you are often ignored or it is not prioritized and the client suffers. For example, 1 client was having heart problems and the nurse did not come for 3 hours, then when she assessed the client, said nothing was wrong. I ended up having to take the client (along with 2 others) to urgent care, and then that 1 to emerge. They expected me to leave the client alone as my shift was finished ( I obviously refused), and found someone who had already worked a full day to come and sit with the client. They do not care about your well-being. Employees were feeling undervalued at every turn, and a group tried to start a union 9 months in to the place being open. I ended up taking a mental health leave, which they pushed against, then expected me to figure out coverage for all my own shifts, and made me change my counselling appointment (which I scheduled on my lunch hour) because I needed to be available to support my coworker, even though she agreed it would be fine. Another coworker had examplary service (one of the first people hired), never had any informal or formal disciplinary actions, told the manager she was pregnant, then got fired a week later for "not seeming like she's happy here anymore, not being a team player, and having several complaints from other coworkers against her" none of which were ever mentioned to her or addressed. Employee safety is not a concern. 1 client was aggressive and would rush staff in their wheelchair to the point staff had to jump on furniture to avoid injury. Another client threatened to smash the window and throw furniture if staff did not let him leave. Another client kept reporting a staff member was withholding medication (they were not, as it's all logged electronically), then when that staff ended their shift, the client proceeded to tell another staff member that they were going to give the first staff a Colombian neck tie, and continued to explain all the ways he was going to hurt that staff member. Management was informed (and reported they would speak to the first staff member and put a safety risk plan in place). The staff member returned to work 4 days later, and was asked by another staff (after the full day of work was done) if the manager had talked to her about what happened with the client. Management had not talked to her, nor put a safety plan in place, and never addressed the issue.