By Michele Skalicky, KSMU
This is Direct Support Professionals Recognition Week, a time to recognize individuals who provide care for those with disabilities and the elderly. There’s currently a shortage of DSPs, and Medicaid cuts are making the problem worse.
Cuts to Medicaid are included in the tax and spending bill signed by President Donald Trump last year.
According to a story by Marketplace this week, those cuts have resulted in states slashing their Medicaid budgets. Decreased funding for home healthcare services for those with disabilities and the elderly are part of that budget reduction.
Adam Christensen is Easterseals' vice-president of programs for southwest Missouri and southeast Kansas. He said those who provide that care – direct support professionals or DSPs– are the heartbeat of what his organization does to care for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
"Support and independence are not opposites. The right support creates independence," said Christensen. "And so, we have individuals that we serve currently that might not need somebody 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They might just need somebody a few hours a week. We even have technology enabled supports where if somebody just needs to talk through a recipe, they can hit a button on a screen. Through remote supports and talk through that."
Easterseals Midwest employs around 1,600 people, and the vast majority of them are DSPs, he said.
There’s already a shortage of direct support professionals. The current national rate DSP turnover rate is 39%, and cuts to Medicaid are expected to lead to an even greater problem. According to reporting by NPR, about half of Medicaid spending on elderly people is for “home and community based” services.
Medicaid pays caregivers to help with a person’s essential needs. Without that support, individuals with disabilities can have poor outcomes.
"Not getting the care that they need can lead to some disastrous results," said Christensen. "And we find hospitals and we find jails overcome with the IDD population because there's nowhere else for them to go."
That's why they work to provide community empowering living opportunities, he said.
When a person without access to a DSP ends up staying longer than necessary in a hospital or other facility, that leads to a significant cost to the state.
Christensen hears stories from families that they serve who say they are grateful to see their loved ones be able to live more independently because of the work of DSPs.
He’s hopeful that a bill going through Congress called the DSP Act will be approved. It would result in improved data regarding caregiver shortages and would give greater visibility to the work that DSPs do.
As part of this week, Christensen said they asked their DSPs what their superpowers are.
"We are just so thankful and grateful," he said. "Not just at Easterseals, but all DSPs at all providers."
