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This document has been archived because some of the information it contains may be out of date. (6/09)
Direct Care Realities...
(Sidebar in original publication)
Imagine that you are a person with a disability. You are completely dependent on staff hired by a human service agency for all of your physical needs, including when you will get out of bed in the morning. Now, imagine that each morning, as you wait for the staff person to knock on your bedroom door, greet you and say good morning, and help you prepare for the day, you have no idea who it is that will be coming through the door. You have little or no assurance that it will be the same person as yesterday, or if that person who is here today will be back tomorrow. And imagine that this is the case each and every morning of your life.
– M.C., direct support professional
Currently, the majority of our workforce that works full-time is living below poverty level. Our responsibilities involve continuous medical care and emergencies, [responding to] behavioral issues, and overall responsibility for human lives. The expectations that employers have for the employee far surpass the present wage. Many employees are forced to seek a second source of income in order to finance the basic necessities in life.
– K.K., direct support professional
We would not trust our cars to non-experienced mechanics, so why would we entrust the lives of our children...siblings... friends...neighbors to those without the necessary skills and experience? It is time for those of us who know what we do, and how to do it well, to come together and teach those skills to others. It is time that we offer accredited training programs, continuing education courses, and skill assessments for applicants.
– L.S., direct support professional*
Next to our families, it is professionals and direct support workers who can have the most important influence on our lives.
–A. F., self advocate*
In addition to turnover, the inability to recruit qualified people into the field continues to grow. We are finding that we are now competing with fast food restaurants and losing because we don’t have enough money. As a result, we are spending more and more resources on recruitment. This money could be put to much better use for the people we serve.
– P.M., direct support professional
My wages in the human service field have never been enough to support myself, and I even have a B.S. degree. Ever since I started working in this field, I’ve also had to have a second job. Working two jobs is extremely tiring. I work from paycheck to paycheck, sometimes having to pay bills late. I’m constantly trying to catch up. I can’t ima-gine how people with children can afford to work in this field, unless they have a spouse with a well-paying job to support them. How could I ever afford to have children?
– P.K., direct support professional
In the past three years, the agency where I work hired 201 people to fill 52 direct service jobs. Two hundred one new faces in the mornings, greeting the 28 people we serve in the home where I work. Twenty people to train, not knowing if they’ll be here next week. Two hundred one people who do things just slightly different from the last person who woke you up. Two hundred one new people in three years at a starting wage of $5.00 per hour.
– M.C., direct support professional
I think it is important for staff to protect me and be a supporter. Staff should help me to do better in my life. Helping me to succeed and to make it in life are really important, and they have to care. It’s the people who have stuck with me the longest that have been able to help me the most. Those that have been around with me for years are those that have the best qualities.
–J.B., self advocate*
I am repeatedly annoyed – even angered – by those who, upon learning my chosen vocation, exclaim that “it takes a special kind of person to work with those people.” Hidden in that message is the connotation that no one in their right mind would choose to care for those whom we would prefer to neither see nor hear in our communities. Consequently, we continue to work in a field which enjoys little esteem or status in our society.
– L.S., direct support professional*
I believe that voluntary credentialing will be a major first step toward professional-izing direct services. As a result, I believe that we will see portability, reasonable wages, and an ability for someone to make a career of direct services work...I believe that credentialing will be part of the key to the survival of service delivery in the years ahead. As we become more and more decentralized in service delivery, no one will be more important than a well-educated direct service worker. The person served will be better served; the family will become an ally; and the service provider organization will have a trained, empowered profession-al to carry out its mission.
– D.R., agency CEO*
A lot of these 201 people [who left] were good folks. Good staff, who had good relationships with the people we serve. They didn’t leave because they didn’t like the work or care about the people they served. They left because they had families to feed or student loans to pay or vacations they dreamed of but knew they couldn’t afford because they were working for just more than minimum wage without even the hope of a cost of living increase once a year. And the people they serve are still here. Still needing quality services, still wondering who’s coming through their bedroom door tomorrow morning.
– M.C.., direct support professional
*Note: Quote excerpted with permission from Jaskulski, T. & Ebenstein, W. (Eds.) (1996). Opportunities for excellence: Supporting the frontline workforce. Washington, D.C.: President’s Committee on Mental Retardation.
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Resources: Web Sites Related to Direct Support Workforce Development
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Citation: Gaylord, V., Hewitt, A., & Larson, S. (1998). Impact: Feature Issue on Direct Support Workforce Development, 10(4) [online]. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, Institute on Community Integration. Available from http://ici.umn.edu/products/impact/104/. __________ Hard copies of Impact are available from the Publications Office of the Institute on Community Integration. The first copy of this issue is free; additional copies are $4 each. You can request copies by phone at 612-624-4512 or E-mail at icipub@umn.edu, or you can fax or mail us an order form. See our listing of other issues of Impact for more information. The print design version (PDF, 448K, 28 pp.) of this issue of Impact is also available for free, complete with the color layout and photographs. This version looks the most like the newsletter as it was printed. The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity employer and educator.
