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Do you know someone who is making a difference in the field of Direct Support? Then they should be nominated to win an award from DSPAT and DIDD More…

Direct Support Professionals Association of Tennessee

News You Can Use!

The deadline for Above and Beyond Award nominations is Monday, April 30, 2012.

NADSP Issues Response to Amend the Fair Labor Standards Act Companionship and Live-In Worker Regulations

The National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals (NADSP) has been working to enhance the status of direct support professionals and promote the development of a highly competent human services workforce for more than fifteen years. As the leading advocacy organization that represents 1.2 million direct support professionals who support people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, we strongly support the United States Department of Labor's proposed regulations (RIN 1235-AA05) to ensure that all direct support workers receive the same labor protections as other American workers.

Fewer people are being drawn to direct support as a career due to extremely low entry-level wages, where the national average is $9.40 per hour, while turnover and vacancy rates remains extraordinarily high. Given that the average Direct Support Professional may be a single parent of two children or more, many of these workers qualify for public assistance, are uninsured and are forced to work more than one job to make ends meet.

We are also supporting these changes in order to balance the Long-Term Supports & Services (LTSS) sector for the following reasons:

The current interpretation of the rule that allows for large numbers of workers to be exempt from minimum wage and overtime rules is inconsistent with the reality of how LTSS are delivered now and inconsistent with the needs and preferences of people with disabilities.

In a balanced system, people with disabilities must have the option to receive LTSS in the setting of their choice.  CMS and state Medicaid programs have invested heavily in making home and community-based LTSS more accessible and more available to people with disabilities. This shift, away from what used to be the default of institutional services for most people aging or with disabilities, is enormously challenging for a variety of reasons.  There are significant policy barriers, political barriers, and infrastructure barriers to balancing the system.  One of the biggest barriers to balancing is the lack of a stable and adequate workforce available to serve people in their homes and communities.  These are hard jobs to fill in both institutional and HCBS settings and turnover rates are extremely high.  In HCBS these jobs are even lower paying, have fewer benefits, fewer supports in terms of training and supervision, and have higher occupational injury rates than in facility settings.

With the shift in state policies toward greater use of HCBS, people with
 more significant levels of disabilities are now living at home.  The average acuity levels of people in HCBS programs and living in institutions are very close in many states. 
  
Direct Support Professionals are serving Medicaid recipients in their homes and in community-settings who would almost always have been in a nursing facility or institution not very many years ago. 

The job requirements of workers in both settings are comparable and so the rules that apply to these workers should be comparable.  Providing basic employee protections to people working in nursing facilities and institutions and not to people doing the same work in private homes and community-based settings is irrational, counter to Medicaid efforts towards balancing, and counter to the interests of people with disabilities.

The extremely low wages of this workforce undermines the continuity and quality of care for millions of Americans with disabilities. These services are becoming increasingly important and we should treat those who care for our most vulnerable with respect and dignity. These proposed regulations would help embrace a sustainable and professional direct support workforce that could help fulfill the spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act, meet the needs of the consent decrees born from the Olmstead Act and begin to envision a diverse home and community-based services system now and well into the future.

Sincerely,

Joseph M. Macbeth
Executive Director

Read Governor Haslam’s 2011 DSP Proclamation HERE.

The Arc Action Alert! Innovative Advocacy! New ways to be heard!

The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction is entering a crucial stage in its efforts to identify $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction before its Nov. 23 deadline. Cuts to important disability-related programs, like Medicaid, could be proposed by the Committee and enacted by Congress.  This would severely harm people with disabilities and many others who are reliant on Medicaid services in your community. As the Committee continues to deliberate we need to find innovative ways to get the “Don’t Cut Our Lifeline!” message across. In the time it takes you to read this email, you can reach out to your Members of Congress and let them know that Medicaid is an essential lifeline to you and your family. While making calls and writing letters is a great way to reach out, there also are other ways to get your message across quickly and effectively. New media is playing a large and growing role in political communications, campaigns, and current events worldwide. If you have a Twitter and/or  Facebook account and 2 minutes to spare, you can get your message to your legislators. Visit your Representative’s and Senators’ homepage and see if they have a Facebook or Twitter link. You can also use this online tool to find your legislators’ Twitter page. Once you find their page write on their wall or tweet to them about why Medicaid is important to you. You can also ask them a question about Medicaid (for example, “Do you know that Medicaid provides critical supports to people with disabilities and is a major source of jobs in our state?”). Here are some suggestions for using Twitter and Facebook to reach out to elected officials: Facebook Keep your content concise and on subject. 75 words or less, with a link is a good rule of thumb. Ask a question. It's the quickest way to involve your audience and make your content interactive. Make sure you are on the legislator’s official page; this will be the one they link to from their congressional website. For examples, check out our Facebook page Twitter Share in 140 characters or less. Links should almost always be posted with content on Twitter. Try to leave about 20 characters to spare, so people have a chance to retweet (repost) your content and add an optional comment. When appropriate, add a hash tag. Hash tags are a way to group tweets into a larger conversion. For more on hash tags, visit this page on Twitter. Suggested hash tags for messages about Medicaid: #Medicaid, #Don’tCutOurLifeline, and #SaveMedicaid For examples of tweets, check out our Twitter page. Please share any feedback you get on Facebook or Twitter with The Arc. We will be happy to share any buzz the Don’t Cut Our Lifeline! campaign is creating online. Let’s think outside of the box and reach out to Congress in new ways. Your story and your voice can make a difference, so be heard!

The Direct Support Professionals Association of Tennessee’s (DSPAT) is NOT a union.  It is a professional organization, supported by industry members.  DSPAT’s position on labor union organization, as well as the position of the National Alliance of Direct Support Professionals (NADSP) is one of neutrality.  DSPAT neither recommends nor discourages DSPs from joining a union.

The purpose and activity of DSPAT is to improve the quality of human services and supports through an ethical, credentialed and respected DSP workforce.  DSPAT is a professional association by and for DSPs promoting service excellence through a comprehensive code of ethics, movement towards a portable, national credential for quality DSP workforce, and a unified voice of advocacy on issues of importance to the field.  Although organized labor may share one or another aspect of our national agenda (e.g. staff opportunity or compensation), DSPAT is neither represented by a union nor engaged in union-like activities.

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