Leading Practice Resources

Direct Support Professionals (DSPs) are the paid staff who support individuals with IDD to live their lives and enjoy the same opportunities and experiences as people without disabilities. DSPs support people in whatever ways they need to enhance inclusion and independence. Their work promotes informed decision-making, understanding risk, and exercising rights and choices. Providing direct support is highly complex and requires significant skills, including sound judgment, independent problem-solving, decision-making, behavioral assessment, crisis prevention and intervention, and communication. Many DSPs are isolated, without co-workers, supervisors, or clinical professionals on-site to provide assistance or guidance. DSPs are interdisciplinary professionals whose duties resemble many tasks typically completed by teachers, nurses, allied health professionals, social workers, counselors, and others. Highly-effective DSPs are skilled at developing strong relationships with those they support and their families, and are flexible enough to change, depending on each person’s needs and abilities.