r/directsupport

I’ve been a dsp for 10 years now and I think I’m just over it. I’ve worked from behavioral houses and medical houses to more independent houses and a couple of different agencies. Between the constant change of staffing and relief staff being late or not showing up so you’re forced to do doubles, gets annoying fast. The management is terrible and plays favorites. Lazy co workers don’t get in trouble and the good ones always end up leaving.

I’m trying to start job hunting but I’m not sure where to go. I do enjoy this field but I just need a change of scenery. A lot of my former co workers work at hospitals now and they seem to love it there. Has anyone else done the same?

I am moving in two months. I love my agency and want to give them a two month notice, but I’m scared they’ll just let me go. I have no reason to believe they’ll do this other than the fact that I’ve seen this in other fields.

I do good work. Management had commended me on my ability to get along with a range of clients. I pick up multiple shifts a week. They like me there and I think they’d keep me until I move, but I really can’t risk get screwed out of consistent pay. I need to save up for rent.

My agency is actively hiring and struggles with callouts, so I’m really conflicted. With the call outs, I know they need people to fill in. With the hiring, I’m worried they’ll might replace me. There’s reason also for me to believe they’ll keep me for my consistent shifts with one difficult individual (and hopefully allow me to pick up more respite).

I don’t want to wait (give short notice) to tell them because I need to ask my bosses if they can be a reference for me. I also don’t want the people I support to be without 100% trained staff if I give short notice.

Any insight and advice would be appreciated.

So I work as a DSP for an autistic child (16), I have studied some psychology back in the day and I always knew I wanted to do something with it. So I’m wondering what other certs I can get? I been looking at RBT?

I’m the only male case manger in our specific program across 5 counties, and somehow that has turned into “give him every inappropriate older male client.”

They try to keep most workers in 1–2 counties to cut down on drive time. Meanwhile I’m covering 4 out of the 5 counties because these cases keep getting transferred to me.

We’re Medicaid waiver and all our clients are 60+. Some of these older guys will answer the door naked or sitting in their wheelchair with just a towel over their lap. Instead of telling that CM, “Take security with you next visit,” the case gets handed off to me. We literally have two security staff whose whole job is to go on visits with people if needed.

And we only see these clients quarterly, every 90 days. It’s not like these are daily crisis visits.

What really gets me is these guys are magically never naked when I show up. So they absolutely know better and can control it when they want to.

I get why the agency does it to an extent, but it’s frustrating when the solution becomes “give it to the male worker” instead of addressing the behavior directly or using the security staff we already have. Meanwhile I’m driving from one end of God’s creation to the other because nobody else wants to deal with certain clients.

Just a note of caution to those considering working in this field: if you stay long enough, it's highly likely you will end up in some sort of hot water. That might be through the state oversight agency or with the company itself. This field is (understandably) very tightly regulated, and in such a way that the brunt of discipline/blame/consequences falls on the DSPs - not the companies themselves. In fact, in my state, the companies have internal employees under their own payroll tasked with conducting an unbiased investigation into their own alleged wrongdoing on behalf of the government oversight agency.

If you work as a DSP, your company will in all likelihood pile on responsibilities - transportation, hygiene care, medication administration, and covering extra shifts and staying late when the next person doesnt show up on time.

If and when anything goes wrong, the company is incentived to throw the DSPs under the bus. This will be through a write-up, suspension, administrative incident report, etc. This allows them to cover themselves at no cost (even if they are at fault for understaffing or whatever it may be).

Those incidents/discipline/suspensions/etc. may not seem to matter much but they do. Those will go in your file and are now part of your employment history. Those incident reports can land you on a state registry. If its something very serious, the incident can result in a criminal investigation.

I worked for only a few years as a DSP and nearly everyone I had worked with (and these were generally well meaning good staff) had some sort of disciplinary incident on file.

I have friends who were the go-to DSPs for years, and ended up fired and hung out to dry when someone needed to get scapegoated.

All this to say, imo it's really not worth it if you have other options.

That being said, it could be there are some good companies out there. Just speaking from my experience.

Sitting at urgent care writing this. This is my third work related injury with this job in the last year. Only one of those was by my own doing (I’m stupid and tripped on the sidewalk in the dark, I clock in at 5:45am everyday)

But the other two were providing direct care.
Yesterday I got kicked super hard in the back of the shoulder by one of the guys. It’s still hurts. Went to urgent care yesterday who put me on light duty this whole week and they also told me to come back today to get X-rays done. The appointment isn’t over yet and it already sounds like these X-rays aren’t going to be favorable based on the techs follow up questions which sucks.
This person who kicked me too is super behavioral. He hates coming home from outings. I tried so hard not to cry when I got kicked because it hurt so bad.
I don’t even work in the houses anymore really, I normally work in a different department but I pick up here because I love my job so much.
I’m terrified of losing my job over another injury caused by an individual. I thankfully have the same WC attorney from my very first injury. But I’m scared.

I don’t even know the point of this post anymore. I feel drained. I reported this all correctly minus the house manager because yesterday was on call only. But when I tried to talk to her this morning, she snapped at me and totally dismissed it. I wanted to cry right then and there.

Help me understand what my options are.

Long story kinda - left an agency with residents I loved to work closer to home. Interviewed with the house manager, Program Director, met the residents where I'd work, and then had my final interview with the coordinator. Was scheduled for orientation and then gave notice at my other agency. I started my new job with the residents and everything was going pretty ok. It was way different than the other agency but the schedule they gave me worked perfectly for the other TWO jobs I have that are quite busy in the spring and summer.

After 6 weeks they pulled me from this house and said I did not fit well there (the coordinator is known to run people out of the homes she is in charge of per some of the other DSP's that work at this agency). They did not try to train me, make it a teaching moment or anything like that. Just x'ed off that schedule. Then they offered me a few 8 hour shifts with a woman who was just awful, no DD, very mentally ill and just berated me the entire shift, threatening to kill someone if I ever came back, threatening to call the police on me, and then threatening to lock me out of the house. So they took me off that schedule.

Now I have ZERO hours on the schedule.

They send open schedules every week that just do not work for my other jobs. They have not let me go, they just don't schedule me any hours so I can't even apply for unemployment.

I am applying to other agencies but in the meantime, I have no paycheck coming after this week and no hours on the schedule.

Help.

I've had it with one of my clients. I'm at the point where I don't ever want to see him again in my life.

First off, gas is almost $7.00 a gallon where I live, so keep this in mind. I'm CONSTANTLY watching my gas intake like a hawk because I have to stretch my gas $$ since the pay I make is a complete joke.

I took my client to a store he enjoys going to. Before I took him, I let him know we're going to be there for awhile (like 2 hours) because I can't afford to drive around the city and it was already out of the town we normally work in. We settled in, everything is fine. At about an hour he starts asking to leave. I let him know we're staying awhile and he goes off to do whatever it is he does. After about an hour 45 minutes we go to leave. He always rushes and walks ahead of me, so I'm scrambling to keep up. He gets on the escalator and I follow him, behind him. I needed to ask him a question so I put my hand on his shoulder and said his name.

He SCREAMED bloody murder like he was being killed. The entire store stopped and looked at us. People were rushing over asking if he was OK, if I was ok...if they should call someone....nope. Just him having a temper tantrum. But what made me wash my hands of this person was his reaction. He started yelling and cursing at ME, asking what the hell my problem was, why would I touch him, just going off on a ridiculous tirade of BS because I touched his fucking shoulder. We get down to the lower level and people are asking if I'm OK, if he's OK, and I just rushed him out of the store.

I almost didn't believe it for a minute? I stopped him and just let him have it in the calmest and most severe tone of voice i could possibly manage without losing my composure. Asked him why he would yell at me like that when he KNOWS I'm always less than five or six steps behind him. Asked him why he screamed (because he was scared and startled) and let him know that there's no excuse for his reaction and that it was completely inappropriate in public. I kind of feel bad but honestly.....this isn't the first time he's gone off on me in public. He goes off on his Mom like this too if he can't have his way.

There's also the problem that he's extremely adverse to people trying to help him, but he's fucking clueless about keeping himself safe. We're just now getting to the point of him waiting for me and not just bolting across the street even if a car is turning and I've been working with him for months now. He doesn't care or listen half the time, just walks out.

For a very long time this person was also lying to me about putting on his seat belt, which obviously is a MASSIVE red flag and I was furious about it when I found out. I had a talk with him and he's better, but I still have to check him every single time he's in MY vehicle with me. It's even more insulting for me because i know my company wouldn't pay the massive ticket that would result if we ever got pulled over.

I'm not even angry or embarrassed. I honestly feel like I'm past those levels and at a stage of just idk......I'm done with him. I don't want to have ANYTHING to do with this person ever again. He can be nice and fun to work with on some occasions but this was just too much. The entire time I was driving him back I really just wanted him out of my car and my life. This is going to happen again with this person and I'm not going to take verbal abuse and bullying. I dealt with it enough in my formative years and I'll be dammed if I take it again in my adulthood.

Sorry. I just had to get that out.

My boss’s mugshot. 19 counts of forgery. Overpayment to a ward account. Bank documents not adding up.

Loveeeee this profession, don’t you?

i’ve been a dsp for 3 years - for almost two years i’ve been working with a client who has down syndrome and SEVERE dementia. I’ve watched her disappear more and more throughout the years and it kills me. she is a hollow, lifeless shell of a person now. i get so frustrated - but it’s in my personal code of ethics to NEVER let a client see or feel my frustrations.

she makes me so mad - just everything she does. i hate how upset i get and how quickly i can feel my patience decrease. i’ve never felt empathy fatigue but god do i feel it with her. i suspect it’s because im angry im losing her. who she was two years ago was someone with substance, someone i knew i could help and make progress with. all of that is gone now. the only thing i can do is keep her at a baseline for as long as possible. even that is becoming impossible.

i know my anger is selfish and personal. do yall feel similarly to a client? if so, how do you manage those frustrations?

I have a pretty highly functioning client who lives on their own, when making food for this client there’s almost always leftovers due to it being just them. They almost always refuse to eat the leftovers because they want something new every time they eat. The staff are constantly throwing perfectly good food out as we have to throw it out within 3 days, and the client is running out of food to make decent meals and food stamps as they want to spend it all on soda and other things like sweets and sides. They get quite upset when we try to prompt them about eating the leftovers and not wasting food, as well as running out of their food stamps. Has anybody dealt with this and have any recommendations on how we can go about talking with the client about this in a way that would maybe make more sense?

I’m in Southern California what’s best and fastest way to get hired for this job ?

Ok so I just got into work and my manager resigned in front of me left all her stuff and left me with three adolescent clients. We’re supposed to be 1:1 but we’re severely understaffed and our higher ups are not doing anything to help. I’m working 2pm-6am so 16 hours and I worked the same yesterday and no one is scheduled for tomorrow. My manager was picking up all of those shifts.

I called the higher ups and they literally said “I’m getting another call” and hung up on me. I can’t legally be here more than 16 hours but I can’t legally leave, not that I would want to leave my clients alone anyways. Wtf do I do. If they don’t send someone in who do I call????

Edit: this is in Oregon if that affects anything

Update: thank you to everyone who commented. I didn’t realize this had gotten a response because I was busy doing my job lol. I ended up calling the RD and she told me there would be someone coming in to help me in an hour and if no one else was able to she would come in at 6 am. I didn’t hear from her for a few hours after that and no one ended up showing up at the house until 3 hours into my shift. Things have been a little easier since then but I’m still a little worried about 6 am since management doesn’t have the best track record.

I’m going to think about calling the abuse hot lines and talk over the situation with some of my coworkers the get some more perspective on it because that just seems so drastic but that’s probably just me being irrational. I really appreciate all the suggestions, know my clients are in good hands now and I am a lot more chill than I was earlier.

Update 2: talked to the person the higher ups sent to help me today about the reporting and realized I needed to do it. Called the 24hour hotline and they SENT ME TO VOICE MAIL.

So I’m looking forward to my interrogation. I’m trying to decide what face I wanna use when I get to see the look of the supervisors face when she learns that her sighed sworn statement she made, that i “screamed at threatened to punch her” on specific date and shift never happened and that I can even prove it. And when they ask how I can price it, I’m going to pull out my phone and play recording I have of that entire shift. Bahahaha ! It’s rare that we as DSAs get to hold the trump card and in this case I have a role flush. I’m going to sink her fucking battleship. And then when they suspend her without pay, and permanently remove her from her jobs site I’m going to brag about it every day for weeks it’s not months. This will be not the 1st or the 2nd but the third time I will have destroyed somone in management for fabricating a lie and proved it by a detailed recording hahahahaha I’m a fucking legend!!!! Take a piece of advice from me people. Record every shift you ever work. Save it for 10 days before deleting them. Because it not matter of if. But a matter of when Somone lies. Oh and before you you say it’s illegal. It’s not.

Can you guys give me any tips? It seems like I got the client no one wanted because of their history. Any tips will be helpful because I have no experience at all

I am tasked with flossing 2 clients’ teeth. They have flossing piks. They would not try to hurt me deliberately, but I worry that if I floss their molars, I will have to stick my finger in far enuf into their mouths so that if they accidentally were to bite down, I would get injured.

My agency has never said keep yourself safe, which makes me realize that I must think for myself about all risky tasks. If you are tasked with flossing, how do you do it?

I’ve only worked here for about a year. My last house was more independent and focused more on emotional regulation. I’ve gotten hurt at that house before (pushed down stairs) but at the time it was worth it to me. I got moved to a different house after pressing charges against the client who pushed me because she has a history of violent behavior. After this I think she ended up getting charged with a misdemeanor. After the incident her file was updated and she ended up having a much more criminally violent past that I was not aware of. Which made me quite upset.

I was then moved to a different house after all the legal stuff happened. (I was not involved in the legal side, the state was who officially charged her idk about these things). I’m pretty sure that’s why I was moved. When I got switched my hours were cut in half which I didn’t mind because by that point I was exhausted and had no interest in picking up shifts or working any more than I had to. This new house is much different from my old house. I’ve had many issues with wheelchair transfers specifically. The client I have to transfer is about the same weight as I am (120-130lbs) and there are no assisting tools for transfers.

Today it was just me and her. I tried to move her but I couldnt reach the wheelchair in time, and she was sitting on the floor. I physically couldn’t lift her back up. I tried for maybe 30-45 minutes trying and threw out my back hard. i was crying and struggling the whole thing until a coworker could help me. The client was laughing along the whole time but I was so stressed.

I just can’t do this anymore. I can’t do it. I am so unbelievably burnt out I cannot physically or mentally do my job. I would rather work in any other field and caretaking. I just can’t do this. I don’t care what bridges I burn. I am quitting effective immediately. I just can’t do it. I can’t. I had to step out and take 15 minutes to cry and calm down and I simply can’t do this anymore. I cannot.