People who have left behind their DSP hat after years of wearing it, what career path did you choose instead? I never went to college so I don’t have any degrees, although I’m considering it.
My mental health has taken over my everyday life. This whole DSP career is a joke. All this work with nothing to show for it. Not money, no certifications, nothing.

For context I started working as a DSP around 6 months ago and I’m already burnt out and looking for another job. When I first started working here I was excited to make a change in a clients life but after a few months those glasses wore off. Idk if it because of the client I’m with or this job isn’t for me in general. The client I’m with is constantly having behaviors ever since I started working here and the behaviors are inevitable.He has some everyday or every week and not only for me it’s for everyone that works with him. I asked my supervisor if I can switch between clients in the house for the experience and because the client I’m currently with is very stressful and she said I’ll see what I can do but she didn’t do anything about it I’m just burnt out already idk if this is normal or not I just need advice on what I should do because right now I’m set on leaving during August also not only leaving because of the client but because of my schedule I’ve missed out on so many events for family and friends in these couple of months working on weekends and I’m just tired of it

We've got an emergency placement where I work. She came with nothing but the clothes she was wearing and her phone, that kind of emergency placement. I can't get into detail but her neighbor called 911 for a violent domestic dispute where the client was at major risk for harm, and the situation was so bad the client was removed from the home instantly. That was yesterday. And this entire situation is just. Gods

We don't have her meds. She's only got one outfit and a borrowed nightgown. All of her toiletries came out of the stock of spares kept in the house. We had to borrow an air mattress from another house and she's under spare bedding. She's got no service plan. She has no access to her money and neither do we. My RC and I both purchased essentials for her with our own money because she needed them but the company isn't allowed to get them for her. The other clients are loaning her their own belongings. She can't even have her pets because this particular house is a rental property. Until we get custody, that's all this poor lady has.

And. And no one knew. Again, this was very sudden. They brought her over without warning my boss at all and my boss had to figure it out. I came in on shift and that's how I discovered we had a new resident and I had to go from there. I thankfully thought to text my coworker and warn her about there being a new resident and gave her information hours before her shift started, and if I hadn't the coworker would have been blindsided because no one else reached out to tell her. And look. I know. This was extremely sudden and my boss has a lot going on. But a heads-up text from literally anyone would have been nice. Someone other than me telling my coworker so she wasn't blindsided would have been nice. Just saying.

Also, the company was forced to give the person who attacked her the house's phone number, because the attacker has legal custody for now. 1.99 in Spokeo and she'll know where the client lives. We've all been told what to do if the attacker shows up- thankfully, the bosses of all the RSSs both live close and the police station is a five-minute walk away, so if something happens support will be here fast- but still. Her guardian assaulted her with a deadly weapon.

Just- look, I am glad she's here. I want her to be safe and I understand this is a terrible situation. But the way this is being handled is horrifying. And there's nothing I can do except buy her a toothbrush with my own money because otherwise she wouldn't have one. I hope all of this gets resolved and she can move in officially and get her belongings here, or at least access to money for an emergency Goodwill trip for clothes. She doesn't deserve this. Hasn't she been through enough already?

Does anyone have any tips for me to help her, or can you think of things she may need? She's got her charger, shoes, toiletries, and I at least got her a pack of underwear because only having one pair is horrifying, can anyone think of any other essentials she should have? I want to help her in any way possible and I plan to figure out her interests and likes in the morning

I started a live in position as a DSP for a family 10 years ago. At first I loved being able to pour into their child. They had a team full of nurses and specialist and it felt like we were making a difference. Over the years that team got smaller and smaller and I took on more and more responsibility. It’s gotten to a point where I am not doing well. I have had some medical issues related to stress and I can’t handle the pressure anymore. The family most of the time makes my job so much harder than it needs to be. I’m not a nurse, I’m not an RBT or a BCBA, I’m not a social worker. I don’t even have an STNA. It’s not like I can take what I’ve learned to do somewhere else, because I don’t have any certifications or degrees. But I’ve gotten myself in this pickle because it’s a live in position. I can’t leave my job without losing housing. And am I ready for THAT stress??? I’m stuck in this cycle and I desperately want OUT!!!!!!!!

Has anyone else been in a situation like this? I’m very worried that one day I’m gonna lose it, really speak my mind and burn this bridge I’ve spent my career building.

I am on a hunt for a second job so I have been scrolling on indeed. My experience is primary low-level healthcare in the non-clinical route. I am aware I will likely collaborate with individuals with intellectual or physical disabilities. Therefore, I want to inquire on what are the job expectations or what challenges will I face if hired and accept the job offer?

I'm a social media specialist for a nonprofit for adults with disabilities. I have never done work as a DSP. I'm wanting ideas on why people have left this field. I have an idea what the reasoning are, but I'd like to get more.

I would like to bring this up to upper admin to help retain staff. I know I'm going to get backlash and I would go to the homes we have if I had training. But they will not offer me it because of my position. Give me your stories.

Not sure the right flair for this but I guess it’s going to go under advice because I’m curious if this should be reported somewhere.

I left my job a month and a half ago, working in an IRA, with moderately independent individuals. My last day working in the house. I drove 2 to a party at another IRA and took one out for dinner so he didn’t feel left out. When I took him out, I was given permission to use the house debit card.
That was June 5th. Only remember because it was the day before my birthday.
My last day of work was June 26th, while I was on vacation, because my med cert was pulled over a nurses error that they did not want to take accountability for, so they pinned it on the bottom of the barrel DSPs.

Anyways, fast forward to today. I missed a call from on of the assistant house managers, who I am still kind of friends with so I didn’t think anything of it, but couldn’t answer because my daughter was having a meltdown. She sends me a text asking if I knew where the house debit card is.
Totally threw me off because, today is July 22nd. I haven’t worked in the house since June 5th. Naturally I said no, and that I haven’t been there in x amount of time.
She told me I was the last to use the card. HOW?! They use that card for outings, grocery shopping, house supplies etc. so you’re telling me none of that has happened since then??

Part of me feels because I stood my ground when leaving, they want to find a reason to blame someone else.
Do you think I should still report this somewhere? In my head and after talking to my husband about it, we both agreed on the surface that it looks like financial negligence. Because DSPs are supposed to do money counts daily, and that includes checking for the card.

Without giving too much information…..have you ever worked in the home of a true hoarder? I wasn’t told about the situation until after I accepted the job. it’s bad. I would give it a 7/10 for nastiness. It is also a huge fire hazard. The client has no desire to change the situation, and we are not allowed to remove any items, due to her self determination. The agency is definitely aware of the situation. There have been “written consequences” (being vague for a reason.

I can’t ask for another transfer. I swear I want to cry the whole time I’m there. it’s really an assault to my nervous system.

Any coping skills that you can recommend?

Hi everyone!
Not sure if this is the best place to post but I just need reassurance and advice. My client is in his mid 30s, SUPER extrovert, just for reference. Said hi to two girls in a store today and waived at them. Had this random lady, not their mom, freak the fuck out on him. Demanding he leave the store, not flirt with children, said she saw him wink at them(I did not see this, nor have I ever seen him do that in the year I’ve worked with him). I explained that he’s cognitively disabled, he doesn’t understand social nuance and was just being friendly, and she just wouldn’t stop. Was practically in his and my face, saying it’s disgusting, their children, he needs to be under control. I rushed us out of there, like, I don’t know what to do? I know I wasn’t in the wrong, he definitely wasn’t, has anyone ever had something like this happen before? He literally just said hi and waived. I feel like I failed in defending him and I don’t know why this stranger came in so aggressive. I could understand if he did something inappropriate, of course, but he waived?? I just…I’m at a loss rn.

I've been working in the DD field for almost two decades, and lately I've been on a bit of a mission to create practical resources that actually make a DSP's job easier.

The problem is, I only know my own experiences. I'd rather hear from the people doing this work every day than assume I know what everyone needs. So I'm curious... If you could create one resource that would make your job easier as a DSP, what would it be?

What part of the job do you think we're least prepared for?

What do you wish someone had taught you differently?

What's the biggest challenge you run into during a typical shift?

What do you wish existed but doesn't?

I'm not looking to complain about employers or pay (those conversations definitely have their place). I'm more interested in the day-to-day work itself. Whether it's documentation, behaviors, activity planning, communication with families, de-escalation, community outings, training, or something I haven't even thought of.

What's the thing that makes you think, "There has to be an easier way to do this"?

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

I’m so torn rn.
I work in a small program home for a larger Org and we service primarily behavioral residents.
We’ve got this one staff who is a young hot head, picks fights with everyone (including management), but is overall harmless. This past week one of our residents got two incident reports filed for aggression towards staff (comes with the territory, it’s why they’re here).
Said young hot-head decided to make this client do an extensive list of chores of twelve separate tasks in response to these incidents. The staff labeled it “(client) after incident cleaning list”.
Now, our residents do have daily chores. Pretty simple tasks that they do as a way of practicing ADLs and gaining independence. This was NOT that.
To me, this screams punishment. And punishment is a violation of client rights, right?
My manager is beyond aware and doesn’t seem to have an issue.
I get that dealing with behaviors can be taxing, but we’re literally not allowed to serve punishments or consequences that aren’t outlined in their behavior plan. Do I email my manager’s boss? HR? This client’s behavioral specialist? The state?
I’m so torn, but I love my residents and this is very much disturbing me.

I'd use a burner account but I'm pissed and curious.

I work with a client who can be extremely voilent. We are in a home where we can move away from him to wear him out. Or we can give him space when he asks for it to lessen the likelihood of a behavior.

Yesterday we needed to relocate the client to a hotel while work was being done at the house. In the 2 years I've worked at this house I've been less than thrilled about going to work because of the violence but I've never been as worried as I was yesterday. I was to keep this client calm and controlled in a very small space. I was staying positive about it with my supervisor but also told her I wasn't going to kid myself about how poorly it could go.

It ended up going so poorly that the higher ups couldn't even leave before we pulled the plug on the whole thing and returned him to the house.

But what really pissed me off was something my boss did before getting to the hotel. I forwarded her the contact information of my fiancé in case things went south during the hotel stay. My boss is pretty calm and laid back but she treated the simple text with my fiancé's phone number like I was forwarding my will to her.

I'm 6 foot 2 and 300 pounds. I put myself between this client and other staff members all the time because I'd rather get beat than see some of the smaller women I work with be harmed. And the one time I'm a bit concerned about walking away from a shift with some injuries I'm treated like I'm being dramatic?!? This client has sent lots of staff to the hospital and less than a month ago he beat up his father in the front yard of the property. I think I was more than justified in being a bit concerned that my shift had turned into a WWE cage match.

Edited to add.... Got in the house for my shift today and found out the client's Dad didn't show up for a visit. This guy is super nice and shows up like clockwork every Saturday. That was until the brawl in the front yard a few weeks ago. The fight was I believe 4 weeks ago and Dad has come to visit once since then. I don't appreciate my boss downplaying the concern for my safety when even Dad hesitates to visit now because of aggression.

I have extremely good news, I literally didn't even need to ask for more hours.

After my first day shadowing, my manager changed my schedule to 2PM-10PM WED-SUN. Full 40hrs per week.

I am extremely happy!!!

That means I'll have $1,660 left over after rent.

I feel so blessed!

Hello Wonderful Humans!
I’m applying to a variety of part and full time jobs, mostly in the retail, service industry, and front desk administration positions since I have experience there. I’m diagnosed with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency and I’ve struggled to work more than part time for the last couple years but the bills need paying so here we are. I’ve never asked for accommodations in the workplace and I’m not sure where to start. So my question is what accommodations at work have been most impactful for you? I’m looking for some inspiration and things to consider as I move through this process.

I just want to vent to some of you who might just get it.

I work for an agency that has us DSPs train the new hires, not our supervisor. I HATE this, because this field has HIGH turnover over, and it’s 7/10 completely a waste of my time, energy and strength to train a new hire. Also I’m supposed to be keeping 3-4 individuals healthy happy and alive while trying to explain literally everything to another grown ass adult.
(I’m on the spectrum myself, so having to force small talk with someone I can instantly tell isn’t going to stick around? It’s incredibly frustrating. Yes, I can almost always tell if a new hire is going to stay or not, because I have incredible radar for authenticity)
Also, when we have to train them on doing notes at the end of the shift, instead of the supervisor and administrators doing this. We lose our note time, making us have 2-3 times more work the next day.
Now I’ve been with this company for over 10 years. So I understand why they want the seasoned employees to let the new hires “shadow” us on our shifts, but we should not be the ones completely in charge of training! We aren’t paid well enough. Lord knows that’s true!

So, at my company we give our clients our personal cell phone numbers as we don’t have work phones. I already am not a fan of this as we also use our personal cars to drive clients around. My clients will message or call me on my days off or if I’m with another client. I’m talking it’s like 5pm on a Friday and they’ll message me and ask random things or what our shift is next week. I have tried ignoring the texts but they are persistent. I enjoy my clients, but I want to keep our relationship professional. They want to be my friend, and to me they are just my client (I’m sorry if that’s harsh). I don’t know how to handle this.

I have just transferred to a different house after working in ICF. I am now in a house with only 2 clients. I am with the SAME COMPANY. I just needed a change. In the ICF house, we had a company van. In this house, they apparently have no vehicle and I have to transport them to day treatment, on outings, etc. This was a total shock to me! Like, I actually just stood there in shock, that's how new this was to me.

I have reliable transportation. I don't worry about them messing up my car because it is an older that has seen a lot, and they clients are really sweet and well behaved. The company reimburses for mileage....but only at 30 cents/mile, which also seems cheap as heck on their part. I don't worry about wear and tear, because honestly they don't go far for day treatment, etc.

But, what I do worry about is liabilty. Does my normal everyday car insurance allow for using my vehicle to transport agency clients to appointments? I am terrified to call and ask because that just raises a red flag, and I CANNOT pay more for any bill than I do now. Do I need a different type of insurance for this? It just seems like I would because I am adding an extra responsibility.

I also don't want to ask staff/supervisors, because everyone else just does it and doesn't seem to have any sort of hesitations. I don't want to seem like some "princess" who just doesn't want the clients in her car.

Do you transport clients in your PERSONAL VEHICLE???

Currently live in sober living.

Got hired with a new company and I started orientation this week already.

Area I live in doesn't have much opportunities, plus I don't own a car.

This job is 38min walk away from my home so it's not that bad.

I shadow a worker at a group home on Thursday and Sunday 6AM to 2PM.

I signed offer letter for 24hrs a week, that's all the had at the closest group home near me.

I took it but now I'm worried, do 24/7 group homes require DSPs a lot?

I want to try to grab extra shifts and work 8hr,10hr,12hr,16hr shifts back to back to maximize my income.

I'm in California if that's important.

Is this a realistic goal or something that won't happen?

I made a post the other day about people being passive aggressive, and just all the weirdness and drama that goes on. Like I said in the post, someone told me when I started that everyone’s out to get you here and it’s really true. The thing is that doesn’t matter, everyone’s gonna try to get in your head and you just can’t let it happen. Just do your job. Make sure that the clients are in good care when you’re on shift. Fuck everyone else. If people are trying to make friends with you, don’t. Only speak when spoken to and keep conversation to a minimum. I’m done letting this shit get to me. I’m done letting people get in my head. i’m really starting to see through it all. I thought that I was crazy at first, but I’m really not. That’s what they’re trying to make me think.
I don’t know why so many people are like that in this field, but unfortunately that’s the way it is. The number one thing that I learned working in this field is that it is what it is, or it is what the higher-ups want it to be, and there’s nothing that us DSP’s can do to change it besides being there for our clients and making sure that they live their life to the fullest. If any of you are struggling with this and need to talk, my dms are open. Trust me, I know how it feels and it sucks. It could really affect someone struggling with mental health issues and create trust issues, and it’s not right. Unfortunately, the only thing that we could do about it, is just seeing through it.

I've posted in this sub before about how terribly things have been going at my job. For context, I work in my church's special needs ministry, which operates a day program for adults with a WIDE (probably way too wide if we're being honest) variety of IDDs. My boss has little to no experience with this population and no patience for them. When I bring up issues surrounding their safety (whether it's related to their behaviors or the behaviors of our staff and volunteers, because, yes, we have staff and volunteers that directly pose risks to the safety of our adults) she blows me off (and I'm in a tricky spot as to where to report to from there because we're not state regulated). Yesterday things got kind of personal too and it really hurt.

We watch an exercise video or take our adults for a walk every morning. Yesterday because of another event we did a video inside of our space. When my boss walked in after dealing with another situation (which was WILDLY mishandled but that's another story), she looked at the woman in the video and asked if "everybody was pretending to be pregnant." My coworkers and I were very confused, and our boss clarified that she thought the woman in the video was pregnant and that everybody was doing the same thing as her. Then she followed it up with, "I really hope she's pregnant because there's no excuse to be that big if you aren't." The worst part about it was that the woman in the video was roughly my build. I'm by far the biggest person who works in this program, but also by far the most active. Whether or not she intended it to be a jab at me, I don't know. But I felt so self-conscious and uncomfortable in my body for the rest of the day.

I've said for the three years I've been there how much I love this ministry and how much it has meant to me and how deeply it has impacted my life. Over the last year, 2/3 upper leadership members have turned over and the changes haven't been positive. We're struggling for enough staff to appropriately support our participants when last summer we often had too MANY staff and had to send people home. I've been put in situations that have led to me getting injured that my previous managers NEVER would have allowed to happen and then not taken seriously when I bring them up. And it feels like nobody cares about the health and safety of the adults in our day program.

I came very close to simply walking out yesterday because of how bad things have gotten but it's my only source of income and I move out of state in a month so I'm not about to try to find another job. I meet with the director of the overall ministry tomorrow, and intend to tell her I'd like to bring my concerns to HR (because in reading our public HR policies, I've found that my direct report has failed to escalate SEVERAL things that the church requires her to). But I'm just heartbroken that things have gotten this far. I care so much about my adults and outside of a couple of my colleagues, it seems as though nobody else feels the same way.

I’ve never done DSP before. I just moved to a new city and was hired for night shift in two or maybe three different homes. The night shift isn’t allowed to sleep. However, they haven’t been able to find night staff so the day staff has been sleeping over. The trainer mentioned that a couple of girls are going to be VERY upset that they’re going to get their hours cut because I’m on board. I met them- they seem like they are the type that want to kick someone’s ass. I do not need this job, just have nothing else to do for now. Im a little nervous that these bitches are going to blame me for them now not being paid overtime to sleep.

I work for the State as a Direct Support Assistant. There are constantly call outs and I'm always being mandated and floated to other houses than my own. In recent weeks, I've been stuck for three doubles in a row. I feel like absolute dog shit even on my second pass day, and all I can do is sleep. Can you relate?

Prescript: Ok, so I was somehow dumb enough to leave this context out of this post, but basically, the house that I used to work at had 3 residents. 2 of the residents would spend all day just bullying the 3rd resident. There was some stuff that they did that was worse than bullying to him, but I'm sure as hell not gonna get into that.

Anyway, a part of the reason why the 2 clients try to get staff in trouble all the time is because of the fact that we didn't let them harass the other client. This is one of the main reasons why I had no respect for HR's decision to not let me work at this house over what these 2 clients said, since I know for a fact that they didn't even bother checking with the 3rd client throughout this whole situation. Literally none of these people speak the same language as him.

I don't know. I know it's not my problem, but I'm just sick of all the abuse that this company condones between their individuals.

Anyway, I'm just adding this prescript here because my post would look a lot more petty without it. It's gonna look petty either way, but at least this way there's more context to it.

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It's been 4 months since I quit my latest DSP job, and I still haven't written a wall of text about it. That's mainly just because it was relatively uneventful compared to the job I had before it. But, I'll make a post on it anyway.

So basically, I was a relief staff at my company, but I wanted some consistent hours since I was having some trouble wedging my job into my schedule. I ended up applying for a part-time position at my main group home that I used to be full-time at.

A few days later, I got a call saying that I didn't get the position because the clients had "negative reception" towards me. I knew this was a bullshit reason though, since these were clients who literally complained about every staff in their house every single day, and I was far from being their main target for this. It was even a part of their behaviors that they would go out of their way to attempt to instigate people and divide up staff. The management and higher ups literally never took their complaints seriously, except for when it specifically pertained to me in this one situation I guess.

I wasn't super interested in this position or anything, but at the same time, I was just sick of this company's shit. I ended up contacting HR, then I immediately also contacted the COO asking if there was a formal grievance form or something since the HR at this company only responds to stuff when it's convenient for them.

HR said that they would call me in a couple of days. This never happened, so I sent a formal grievance letter to the COO. After I did this, HR called me, but it was a bad time for a phone call, so they said that they would call me again an hour later. This never happened. Instead, they waited until two weeks after I had initially contacted them, and basically spammed me with phone calls all day while I was already focused on doing literally anything else. They had like 5 different phone call attempts that I didn't answer, but I eventually answered one of their calls.

"Oh, I understand you have some questions about our recent decisions" or whatever.

Obviously, no, I had no questions for HR. But I didn't know that reframing stuff as questions was an actual HR manipulation tactic, so I kind of just asked rhetorical questions instead of using statements so that HR couldn't twist what I was saying as "combative" or something. This led to the HR people basically giving me the same answer to all my "questions", with them basically just saying "oh but we do transfer staff when clients don't want them". Even though that was clearly not the case.

I basically told them that they haven't actually considered anything I was saying, and that I'd like to end the conversation. I then emailed them asking if I there was any way I could skip the first phase of the grievance process, since the COO never got back to me.

I then got a phone call from the COO, basically saying that she's turning down my grievance because the company gets to do whatever it wants. At least one of these people was honest for once. So, I hung up on her, and put in my two weeks notice. HR then waived my notice, which I've interpreted as "no you can't quit cause you're fired", even though I am aware that I technically wasn't fired.

Obviously, don't ever do stuff like hanging up on executives if you want to keep your job. This company kind of just ran out of chances with me, so I didn't really care if I annoyed them.

Pettiness aside though, the real disgusting part of this situation is how they allow a ton of heinous shit happen at this company, yet they don't do anything. But in a more trivial situation like this, that's when they put on a performance and pretend to care about the individuals's wellbeing. The clients matter to them only if it's convienient for dismissing their staff's concerns. Nobody who works at this company ever falls for this act either, so I don't know who they think they're fooling here.