When Yessica Castaneda thinks about launching her career as a social worker, she knows who she doesn’t want to work for: Los Angeles County.
None of her friends has any desire to look for jobs in the county’s beleaguered public mental health network either. They’ve heard about burnout and high caseloads, relentless hours, the emotional toll of taking on patients who are among the region’s worst off — including large numbers of homeless people — and cumbersome bureaucratic rules that require hours of painstaking documentation.
“I was working for this nonprofit that was contracted by the county, and I was on 24/7 crisis call. And that’s just not feasible for the long term,” said Castaneda, 28, a Cal State Northridge graduate student who is currently a master of social work intern with the Los Angeles Unified School District. “I don’t want to burn out.”
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