Attracting Direct Support Professionals: Advancing Career Pathways with Job Quality in Mind

For years, workforce experts have viewed the shortage of direct support professionals (DSPs) as a crisis. DSPs support people with disabilities and older adults to live independently, participate in their communities, and seek and maintain competitive integrated employment (CIE). DSPs help people find and retain high-quality jobs, often playing a critical role in supporting the employment of people with a wide range of disabilities. The data show that DSPs are indispensable: In a 2022 survey of community-based providers that serve people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, for example, 83 percent reported turning away new referrals, and 92 percent reported struggling to achieve quality standards because of insufficient numbers of direct care workers.

In this memo, we present three recommendations for making the occupation more attractive to job seekers. This memo also addresses two topics that emerged from the LEAD Center’s 2022 Direct Support Professionals Think Tank Recommendations: 1) DSP career pathways and training and 2) DSP wages and benefits. In addition, the recommendations suggested here align with strategies included in the Bipartisan Policy Center’s 2023 report on addressing the broader direct care workforce shortage, which highlights the need for public-private partnerships and innovative approaches to attract and retain direct care workers, including DSPs.