direct support professionals

This brief report presents a 24-month update from a survey of more than 2,600 direct support professionals (DSPs) and frontline supervisors who support people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) to live independently in the community. The survey finds that, while vaccination rates are increasing, participants report declines in physical and mental health.

This full issue of Frontline Initiative is dedicated to stories by and for direct support professionals (DSPs) as they navigate longer hours, inadequate pay, grief stemming from the death of colleagues, and other fallout from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Published in collaboration with the National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals (NADSP).

This policy brief summarizes the results of a national survey conducted by RTC-CL of nearly 9,000 direct support professionals (DSPs) providing support to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The takeaways are fear of COVID-19 infection among DSPs and the people they support, low wages, high turnover and vacancy rates, and significant wage differences between Black DSPs and their white counterparts.

The aim of this study was to gather evidence about the experiences of the direct support workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic and to inform efforts to better prepare for future waves of this pandemic. This is a six-month follow-up to the initial report published in fall of 2020.

This brief proposes ways to strengthen the direct care workforce to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and preventable emergency department visits and hospitalization of vulnerable people.