Direct Support Professionals
Get Training and Education
Enhanced education and training for direct service professionals who provide day-to-day care for individuals with a wide range of disabilities has long been a goal for nonprofit agencies and advocates. A number of recent developments are being hailed as significant accomplishments in their own right and incremental steps towards a longer term objective of creating a direct care workforce which is professional, appropriately recognized and respected; and adequately compensated.
In March, the New York State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities awarded $2.4 million in grants to 17 not-for-profit agencies to offer professional development for direct support professionals (DSPs). “By showing us how to best support the people who truly touch the lives of those with developmental disabilities, these demonstration projects will benefit our entire system of care,” said Commissioner Diana Jones Ritter. The Commissioner is now personally heading up OMRDD’s Division of Workforce and Talent Management while she searches for a Deputy Commissioner to take on what she sees as a critical role in the agency.
Two of the larger OMRDD grants – five were up to $300,000 over a three year period – will be used to assist DSPs to achieve certification under a relatively new credentialing program established by the National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals (NADSP).
“This is a national, voluntary credentialing program designed to provide recognition for the contributions and competence of direct care employees,” said Mark Olson, NADSP President when the new program was unveiled in 2006. “The NADSP credential is a portable credential that represents consistency in direct support education, work-based learning and competence.”
The NADSP credentialing program is a three-tiered process.
The DSP-R (Registered.) is an entry level credential for individuals who have six-months continuous experience with an employer in community human services and demonstrates commitment to the field.
The DSP-C (Certified) is awarded to individuals who have demonstrated competence measured and approved by NADSP. Key requirements are 3,000 hours of job experience, completion of an approved 200-hour educational/training program, and preparation of a portfolio that demonstrates competence in eight out of 15 approved DSP skill standards.
A third level DSP-S (Specialized) is available for DSP-Cs who have gone on for further specialized trainings.
At present, only two training programs have been approved by NADSP for the DSP-C credential.
One is the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) certified apprenticeship program.
The other is the College of Direct Support (CDS), which offers a multimedia, interactive web-based curriculum designed for use in conjunction with employer-based training. CDS is intended to be self-paced so that DSPs can work through the material on their own schedule. The courses include: 1) Supporting healthy living, 2) Safety at home and in the community, 3) Cultural competence, 4) Positive behavior support, 5) Introduction to disabilities, 6) Maltreatment of vulnerable adults and children, 7) Supporting friendships and relationships, 8) Direct support professionalism, 9) Introduction to medication support, 10) Person centered planning and support, 11) Teaching skills, 12) Documentation, 13) Community inclusion, 14) Individual rights and choice, and 15) Personal and self care.
The College of Direct Support (CDS) program is the vehicle being used by those OMRDD grantees with projects aimed at assisting DSPs to achieve NADSP certification.
The Institute for Community Living (ICL) Leadership and Excellence Academy for Direct Support (LEADS) project will support up to 45 DSPs towards the goal of NADSP certification through a combination of CDS curriculum and mentorships. The ICL mentors – primarily frontline supervisors—will participate in a two-credit course in supervision offered at Metropolitan College of New York.
“I am very excited about it,” says Ben Sher, ICL’s Director of Training. “I think this will professionalize the direct support world, which is just as important as professionalizing managers and leaders in human services.”
New Horizons Resources, based in Poughkeepse, will support 40 DSPs towards NADSP certification using the CDS trainings. “While the CDS curricula is fairly easy and self instructive, it requires a certain discipline to stay with it,” says Executive Director Regis Obijiski. “We do a sort of hybridization. We will bring in staff and have a whole bunch of laptops. We go over the course work and have discussions because we find that DSPs respond better to classroom instruction. They will do the testing privately and on their own.”
In addition to these agency-specific initiatives, the New York State Association of Community and Residential Agencies (NYSACRA) also received an OMRDD grant for a multi-faceted statewide initiative which includes becoming New York’s Master Administrator for CDS, establishing a marketing campaign to involve provider agencies and DSPs in the development of a NYS Chapter of the NADSP and other marketing activities.
While the NADSP credentialing program is still new, many people hope that it will become a key to professionalizing the direct service field.
Obijiski believes that it will make professional recognition accessible to the many DSPs who can not or at least do not go on to college programs.
“Post secondary education is not always accessible to a lot of DSPs, if only because they may have to be working more than one job. They don’t have the time,” he says.
“It is true,” says Mette Christiansen who directs the Concentration in Human Services at SUNY New Paltz. “There are lots of DSPs who are working two jobs because otherwise they can’t live. They don’t even get to see their own kids. When you ask them to take college classes, they look at you like you have two heads. They are just too busy.”
And, says Obijiski, college does not always come easy for many DSPs who because of their academic experience may be averse to further schooling. “But, they can do very well in training programs that are rigorous where they get a little more hand holding,” he says. “Training is much more practical and has a dignity of its own.”
“The NADSP credential is part of the dream. It is a real accomplishment,” says William Ebenstein, Director of the John F. Kennedy Jr. Institute for Worker Education and Dean of Health and Human Services at the City University of New York.
At the same time, however, Ebenstein and others express some concern that recent trends may be stressing on-the-job and competency-based trainings while understating the value of college-based, credit-bearing education.
“I am not against trainings, but I am much more in favor of having frontline workers come to the university and take courses in Disabilities Studies and so on,” says Ebenstein. “College is the way to get ahead professionally and financially because of the direct link between college credits and salary increases. That is well known. It is also the best way to professionalize the field.
“While college may not be for everybody,” Ebenstein continues, “you will be surprised at how many DSPs have at least some college experience. At YAI, we are talking about 40% of DSPs actually having BA’s. At AHRC, it is between 25-30%. That’s not just having some college; that’s have their degrees already. That is pretty impressive. People may need a little bridge course they go through for basic skills, but there is really nobody who can’t go to college.”
In response, CUNY is currently developing a new Master’s level program in Disabilities Studies. “This is a program that will be very good for front line people who already have their bachelor’s degree,” says Ebenstein. “We are trying to raise the educational vision.”
One concern which infuses the workforce development discussion is that college education has historically been a both a way up and a way out for DSPs. “We find that DSPs who get their bachelors degrees move on,” says Obijiski. “That is terrific, but it shouldn’t be the standard. Approximately 85% of the personnel in agencies like ours are doing direct care. We need to maintain and retain those staff for the sake of competency, longevity and relationships. Our work is defined by relationships and relationships take time to develop.”
Mette Christiansen from SUNY New Paltz understands the concern. “When we go back and meet with graduates of college programs, they are now MSWs, speech pathologists, occupational therapists. No one is doing direct care,” she says. The answer, she argues, is to redefine the DSP position along the lines of European social pedagogues where DSPs take on broader responsibility for the care and treatment of individuals with disabilities. “You can’t just professionalize the staff. You have to professionalize the profession to make it more attractive.”
There is general agreement that this is not an either/or – training vs. college education – question. “It certainly shouldn’t be either college or nothing,” says Mette Christiansen.
“We need to do more to understand what it is the DSP really wants,” says ICL’s Ben Sher. “Some people want to go to college and others say ‘I’m done.’ We do have staff who have been Skill Builders as we call them for many years and maybe that is just what they want. Let’s try to make them the best DSP they can be and let’s get them credentialed. Then, let’s give them some remuneration for being credentialed.”
And, therein lies the next challenge.
“The drawback, right now at least, is that it doesn’t translate into any financial benefit for the individual,” says Sher. “The State isn’t saying OK, if you are DSP-C we are going to have a higher pay grade. That is a challenge.”
Tying reimbursement to the NADSP certification is essential to its future success as a professional qualification. “Until it is recognized on a statewide level and rewarded with some reimbursement, interest is probably going to be weak,” says Obijiski. “It should be a Learn and Earn program. If you get the credential, you are going to get something for it, not only as a bonus, but something that stays with you, genuine pay increases that are reflected year after year.”
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