ALSANA - CASTLEWOOD STAFF WHISTLEBLOWER

FORMER ALSANA EMPLOYEE TO CVU:

First off, I just want to say I am so sorry for everything your daughter and family have experienced at the hands of Castlewood/ Alsana. After I discovered CVU, I couldn't get rid of this gut feeling that the same sorts of things were still unfolding right in front of me. I think I was pretty unaware of what was going on a lot of the time, as leadership (at both the local and national levels) was quite shady. After leaving and reading more into this corporation's history though, I have been piecing a lot together and it breaks my heart; this cause feels personal and really speaks to me.

I'm happy to help in whatever ways I can. While I know the toxicity and abuse I faced at Alsana as an employee absolutely pales in comparison to what far too many former clients have faced there, Alsana absolutely does partake in unethical employment practices. I was a full-time employee on proper payroll. I began as "part-time," though I actually worked full-time the entire time I was "part-time" and was not eligible for benefits (including, of course, insurance, PTO, sick time) for roughly a year before they finally classified me as full-time. Alsana does not give direct care staff any breaks whatsoever; not even a 15 minute break, even if the employee ended up working a double from 6:15 AM to 10:15 PM or later. Direct care staff working doubles happened all the time, as they never maintained proper staffing ratios. They had a made-up staffing ratio of 1 DCS per 6 clients in the residential setting or 1 DCS per 8-10 clients for PHP/IOP, but this was consistently ignored.

No chefs were ever present on weekends and direct care staff was in charge of preparing meals on the weekends. They had us get ServSafe certified, but they're process for it was a joke-- they actually just gave us a ServSafe book with the exact answers in it and had us fill it out on another "test sheet" to have on file. These same direct care staff that were never adequately trained in food safety were also responsible for preparing all snacks throughout the week for all clients.

In general, training was never adequate-- to a point that it is majorly concerning. Direct care staff are the ones who are constantly with the clients who are coming to these places for help and leadership honestly just throws them to the wolves. There was never even a real training on crisis prevention/ intervention for our onboarding, which is concerning, as direct care staff were constantly tasked with managing clients presenting with suicidality and even actual suicide attempts.

Direct care staff, who are only required to have a bachelor's in a related field, were essentially the only employees there on the weekends. Some therapists would come in on the weekends for groups and a nurse would be present, but they pawned most of the work off onto the direct care staff and usually were not available when direct care needed help, even if it was only 1 direct care staff member with 15 clients.

Their hiring and promotion practices are also alarmingly unethical.

I have a lot more I could say about all of the former and more, if anyone is interested.

Apologies for the huge block of text. I have been wanting to reach out to you guys for a long time and have just finally mustered up the courage to do so. Alsana is really a scary place, even for former employees, and I have feared backlash from them for doing so even though I am no longer affiliated with them in any way.

CVU to FORMER EMPLOYEE:

Dear Former Alsana Employee:

Your very well written narrative is powerful. It contains very relevant first-hand inside information.

You were at the Alabama location? Did you ever get to work in the St. Louis property?

Could we get your permission to post this on our site? Having someone with your education and experience critique the internal operations WILL be very helpful to so many. What you say here validates what many victims have been telling us for so long.

Our attorney has seen this and was impressed. But, we respect confidentiality and would never betray the trust you’ve shown in our cause and us. We would never share anything you asked us not to.

Let us know. We have so many questions for you. But one step at a time.

Thanks for the revealing insights!

Bobby

CVU

FORMER EMPLOYEE TO CVU:

Hi,

I only ever worked at the Birmingham, AL location. My interactions with the other locations really only went as far as emails and some of the employees from the St. Louis and CA locations traveling to Birmingham to work there for short periods of time. Further, I only ever worked at one of the Birmingham locations (the one they call the Fitzkeller building, which formerly housed all of their residential, PHP, and IOP programs). They have been in at least 4 separate locations in Birmingham with 3 in Birmingham currently, to my knowledge: 1) the Fitzkeller building for residential, 2) a newer, separate location for PHP/IOP, and 3) one that I think they might call something like “Zelda.” “Zelda” is another “residential” setting and includes what they call a “Florida Model” for treatment that is set in a regular, everyday apartment complex in 2 separate apartments… I think the latter of the locations, whether or not they are still at this 3rd location (I am not 100% sure), is especially worth noting because I believe it is a huge disservice to not only still charge thousands of dollars a day for that, but to provide treatment to these incredibly vulnerable and sick people in such a setting; it is also not an accurate practice of the Florida Model of treatment, which is typically used in addiction treatment and more similar to a PHP or IOP program.

They were also rapidly expanding to another location in AL (Huntsville, AL) while expanding to those 2 other locations in AL— all during the pandemic, no less. I believe this, among so many other things, makes it very, very clear that they’re in it for profit over people.

I am definitely okay with information I provide being posted on your site as long as no identifiable information (i.e. my name, exact dates of employment, etc) is posted with it due to my fear of this corporation or people still affiliated with it potentially retaliating against me and damaging my reputation and/ or current career/ future career prospects.

Your attorney has also been in contact with me and I will be speaking with him further as well.

I apologize for another block of text! I have a lot to say about it all.

Please do let me know if you have any other questions, want any clarification, or if I can be of assistance in any other way!

All the best,

FORMER ALSANA EMPLOYEE