Opinion: U.S. Congress Boondoggle Exacerbates DSP Workforce Crisis

By Roberta Bernstein, Founder/Editor, The Boost

I’m no policy wonk, a surprise to absolutely no one, though I do understand there’s no escaping red tape. So, I might be missing a few nuances here, but a bill being kicked around in Congress makes me want to bang my head against a wall.

Recognizing the Role of Direct Support Professionals (DSP) Act, which passed the U.S. Senate in March and passed a House committee this past week, proposes that the federal government classify the DSP workforce under its own category vs. the broader “home health care aide” category in which it currently resides.

The belief is that legislators don’t entirely understand what DSPs do and how important they are. And this unique classification, the bill’s sponsors say, would help accurately track and report workforce needs and shortages that are currently underreported and that can adversely affect things like the setting of Medicaid rates that “influence DSP wages.”

Let’s unpack this. First, it’s depressing to think that many legislators still need to be schooled on the role DSPs play. Regardless, the bill addresses what Congress knows is a critically high DSP turnover rate. A Congressional report attached to the bill notes that in 2021 the average turnover rate of the DSP workforce varied from 28.5% to 87.5% (emphasis mine) depending on the state, with an average turnover rate of 43.3%. Additionally, over one quarter of provider agencies reported that the number of DSPs on payroll decreased by over 10%. And the crisis, as is well known, has gotten appreciably worse.

So, despite the existing data noted — and the data being collected by various state agencies and an avalanche of anecdotal data — the “problem” is a “lack of sound data,” which is needed, the bill’s sponsors say, to start addressing the problem.

Sure, let’s spend more time not even collecting data, but deciding whether to fine-tune how the data is collected. We’ll just wait for the federal government to figure this out while DSPs continue to burnout or choose to work for a living wage instead and group homes continue to close and people with intellectual and developmental disabilities fall through the cracks and families worry about a return to warehousing and their loved ones being treated as less than human. Let’s keep doing that or, maybe Congress could fast-track needed funds to help DSPs get what they deserve, and give our loved ones a chance to thrive. I say let’s go with the latter.