Shelby Quintal, a senior clinician at the Rubin Home for Boys in Troy, New York, says high staff turnover hinders the ability of some foster youth to form stable, healthy relationships later in life. Photo by Hans Pennink.
By Susanti Sarkar, The Imprint, August 15, 2023
In her five years at the Rubin Home for Boys in Troy, New York, Shelby Quintal has seen countless social workers and childcare staff come and go.
It’s surprising, she mused, that she has stayed this long. As a senior clinician now, Quintal said she often works well past her weekly 40 hours, essentially doing two jobs and getting paid for one. Her duties include counseling children and parents, and case management — scheduling court appointments, supervising family visits, coaching foster youth and coordinating after-care plans for when they age out. To supplement her income, Quintal, 30, also has a part-time job with the agency that owns the group home, Vanderheyden, providing behavioral health services to foster youth in the surrounding upstate community.
But it’s often still not enough to support her two children, ages 9 and 5, she said. After the pandemic, her rent on an apartment in Watervliet, a city just outside of Troy, nearly doubled. And although she holds a master’s degree in her field, she has repeatedly had to move in with friends to keep her kids housed.
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