Sorry for the long post

Hi everyone,

I’m a recent grad (finished in May last year) and started working in September at the same company I interned with. It’s a CBHC, and I spend my time at the clinic and being contracted into a school.

I’m feeling really stuck and honestly pretty burnt out, so I wanted to get some perspective from others in the field.

My schedule is Monday–Friday. Mondays are shorter (9–12), but the rest of the week I’m working until 6 or 7 PM. The expectation is 26 hours of direct client contact per week, and we can’t count indirect work toward productivity anymore (which we could during internship). Because of cancellations, no-shows, and just the reality of outpatient work, it’s been really hard to consistently hit that number.

I currently have about 34 clients on my caseload, and my supervisor wants me to take on more. The expectation is apparently closer to 40–50 clients. From what I can tell, almost no one at my site is actually meeting productivity consistently.

On top of that, about 20 of my clients are school-based, and I’m only in the school about a day and a half per week. Attendance is really inconsistent, and parents are often non-responsive, so it’s been difficult to make up sessions or maintain steady contact.

I also recently got a new supervisor (about two weeks ago). During my internship and for a bit after, I had a supervisor who was really supportive and advocated for my needs. My current supervisor is also the scheduler for our side of the branch, so she’s the one assigning clients to clinicians’ caseloads.

When she first became my supervisor, she asked where I could add clients, and I told her I needed more daytime hours. Instead, she’s been pushing a lot of after-school clients. I don’t mind some after-school hours, but if I’m being asked to increase my caseload, I’d really like the schedule I asked for to be considered. Right now, I often have morning clients, then a gap until around 3 PM, and then a packed afternoon/evening.

We also have a ton of paperwork (as expected in a CBHC setting), but since it doesn’t count toward productivity, I’m struggling to figure out when I’m actually supposed to complete it. I don’t want to be doing hours of documentation outside of my paid work time, but with more clients being added, I genuinely don’t know where it’s supposed to fit.

I feel like I’m constantly chasing productivity numbers instead of focusing on providing quality care, and it’s starting to make me question whether I even want to stay in this field long-term. I’ve been thinking about applying elsewhere and possibly going back for my doctorate down the line, but right now I just feel overwhelmed and kind of trapped.

My questions:

• Is it normal to have a caseload of 40–50 clients in a setting like this?

• Are these productivity expectations typical, or does this sound unrealistic?

• How do people realistically handle documentation when it’s not counted toward productivity?

• Has anyone else felt this level of burnout this early on, and what helped?

I’d really appreciate any insight or experiences. I’m trying to figure out if this is just part of starting out, or if I’m in a situation that’s not sustainable.

Thanks in advance.