Frontline Initiative, The Diverse Voices of DSPs.
The Direct Support Professionals, DSPs, are the foundation of our community developmental services system and this edition features articles by DSPs and advocates with disabilities. DSPs must be competent in so many areas of support and work with a full variety people with disabilities, in complex system of varied approaches and service models. The DSPs work with children and adults and the elderly in their homes and family homes, in workplaces and schools, and in every place you find people engaged with one another.
For many years the struggle was for people with disabilities to be included in society and not segregated in institutional settings. In large part, thanks to the work of DSPs, only an extremely small percentage of people with disabilities remain in institutional settings yet as a system we are still striving to ensure people with disabilities can fully participate in all parts of society. Our community system is only as strong as our network of quality DSPs.
Our Valley Mountain region is currently stuck and unable to fully reset ourselves from the damage caused by the pandemic. As we reported several times during the pandemic, our DSPs were essential workers, and many of them entered unknown and risky situations to support a vulnerable population and many suffered from the effects of COVID. Our community will recover and bounce back but this recovery is linked to the return of this workforce as drivers, residential DSPs, day program DSPs, community integration DSPs, job coaches, school aids and so many others.
Please share this publication with anyone you know who supports people with developmental disabilities - and if they left the field, ask them to come back, we really need them.
|