The character and commitment of our staff members are critical to us serving our clients well. Treatment specialists, a key position within our children’s residential center team, directly care for the needs and safety of our youth clients. This role offers the unique opportunity to build relationships with kids and teens and model for them what a healthy adult looks like. This position receives specialized training in caring for children and teens with trauma. It’s a great opportunity to explore the social services career field and gain experience working alongside other clinical team members. More than that, the treatment specialist role is a ministry to hurting kids looking for hope and stability.
We asked our staff to share about their experiences as a treatment specialist. Tim Hartzler, now our campus spiritual coordinator, served as a treatment specialist in our teen boys cottage for several years. Read his words below.
Being a treatment specialist is difficult and frustrating yet fulfilling and rewarding all at the same time. It can be frustrating watching kids make choices that negatively impact their life, and frustrating when you can’t do anything to help them.
However, it is incredibly fulfilling when you see residents make positive choices and changes in their lives that they have been struggling with, sometimes for all of their lives. Knowing, at the end of the day, that I have served a greater purpose than my own wants or desires, to put someone else’s needs first, is an incredibly rewarding feeling.
My motivation to help our clients is seeing the world through their point of view. Seeing them the way my heavenly Father sees me. To see each one as a lost and broken child that is unable to understand and cope with the world in which they have been brought up. And needing the grace, strength and peace that only comes from Jesus.
The reason I have dedicated time and energy can be summed up in James 1:27, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
What better way to show the love of our heavenly Father than to take care of those who are without a family. At the end of my life when I stand before God, I will not feel remorse over the difficulties I went through for these kids, but rather I will feel ashamed that I did not go through more for them.
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Learn more about the treatment specialist position on our human resources page.
Treatment specialist applicants must be 21 and have a high school diploma/GED, valid driver’s license and reliable transportation. Treatment specialists are required to be able to restrain a client when necessary (training provided) and must be able to pass a pre-employment physical. References, background checks and drug screenings will be completed on all potential candidates. EOE.
