r/directsupport

I currently have two opportunities at hand to either become house lead in a new house at my current company as a DSP or leaving to work as a CNA at a different company.
I’m torn on what to do, as I love my job and my residents currently. However, eventually I would like to try to get my LPN but it would require me to have my CNA already. My options are doing a CNA program through a community college or I was offered a job after if I do it through a company near by as long as I work there for a year after the class/ training. The commitment is the only thing holding me back along with that it is a dollar less than what I’m making now.

Idk what other people’s experiences are as house lead and if the stress level is higher? Just trying to figure out if it’s something I should even take on if I eventually do want to do my LPN. I enjoy being a DSP but wish my experience and training carried over into being a CNA, since a lot of the work is similar in my case. I don’t know what the better or smarter choice would be.

perations director for a senior living community, 65 staff including care teams, dining and housekeeping. Spent the last couple of months evaluating onshift and the breakroom app side by side. Posting this because I couldn't find an honest comparison before I started and had to piece it together myself.

Scheduling

Onshift appears purpose built for healthcare scheduling. Open shift management, call off handling, overtime tracking, predictive scheduling to forecast staffing gaps. Most of all, it's PBJ compliant, which saves us time each month.

Breakroom app appears to have many of the same scheduling features as Onshift but doesn't have the same HPPD/PBJ compliance features that are healthcare specific complexities.

Communication

Onshift has "messaging" but from what I found online, it appears to be more of a notification tool. Messaging on Onshift seems to be more one-way communication and is handled via push notification, SMS text, or automated phone call, and is limited to 140 characters. It looks like onshift's messaging section is primarily to see shift notifications.

Breakroom app is communication first. It's truly built for organizational communications such as announcements with read receipts, Everyone chat for org conversations, 1:1 messaging, and social feed for recognition. You can create role-specific chats, streamlining communication amongst care, dining, and housekeeping teams.

Pricing & Onboarding & Customer Support

Onshift pricing is unclear. You must reach out to their team to get a quote. For 65 staff we were quoted in the range of $6-8 per employee per month depending on the tier, so somewhere around $400-500 a month. You also have to go through them to onboard. Onboarding Onshift would require more setup, including some integration work with our existing systems. We were told it'd be about three weeks to fully roll out. Although I haven't had to use it yet, it may be hard to reach their customer support team because you can only reach them by email or phone.

Breakroom app is $30 a month flat. Not per employee, not per location. Onboarding is also fast and easy. You can self-onboard, and invite team members by phone, QR code, or invite link. All they would need to sign up is a phone number (Note: Breakroom also values individual privacy so phone numbers aren't shared amongst the team). We were told the team could get set-up within a day. This matters a lot when your staff count fluctuates seasonally. Lastly, it was super simple to reach their customer support team. You can reach them not only via email and phone, but also by chat, which is great if you need to multi-task.

Compliance

Onshift has compliance and healthcare specific features including tracking for minimum staffing requirements. If your state has strict minimum staffing rules onshift is built to keep you compliant.

Breakroom app doesn't have those regulatory specific tools. You'd need to manage compliance separately.

Conclusion

We decided to trial Breakroom first because they have a 14 day free trial with no credit card requirements, and so far we really like it. It's a strong choice if all you need is messaging and scheduling features. And their customer support has been truly outstanding so far. This of course means we still need to keep up with our own payroll-based journal requirements, but we may start looking into a payroll service to help alleviate some of this work as we grow.

Overall both are good tools if you're primarily looking for scheduling assistance. They're just built for different primary problems. Go with Breakroom if team communication is important for you, and go with Onshift if you want healthcare specific reporting.

I love my job. Up until recently I loved almost everything about it. I had a great manager and felt supported. Long story short, I moved from house manager to residential manager. I gave it a shot, but after 3 months I stepped back into the house manager role. They gave me an RM (new to the company) that has no person centered thinking skills at all…. NONE WHATSOEVER! I have had several issues starting from my second day back as an HM. It would take to long to explain every issue I’ve had in the 3 month she’s been my direct manager.

So we have a buddy system for HMs, where if you need time off whether you are using PTO or not, you can have another house manager take your calls. Well, I decided to take a 3 day weekend because I’ve been working 6 days a week since February 1st and I start my Bachelor’s in Human and Social Services on Wednesday. I dutifully set up for another HM to take calls for me these 3 days.

Today my RM texts me with a list of shit from her doing a site visit. Like there’s no thermometer in the chest freezer, (Yes there is, maybe try moving the food around to find it), One of the persons supported has no towels in the bathroom, (we keep them elsewhere), debris under the ramp outside, etc. Nothing on this list was an emergency.

I replied to her message thanks for letting me know and assured her I’d be on it first thing Monday morning. She told me she wanted it done today, for me to email my staff and delegate the tasks. I told her then she would need to call the HM that is on call for me this weekend, that she is the one taking my calls this weekend. This little girl (she’s 21 so maybe she thinks this is how she earns respect, by micromanaging and just being rude as hell) told me she not calling the other HM and she’ll be checking 8 am Monday to make sure it’s done. I told her if she’s not going to call the other HM then I will have it completed by Monday afternoon.

I just don’t understand why the constant attitude. It’s not just me, all three of her other HMs have very similar experiences with her. We’re all 100% fed up. I messaged the HM on call for me with receipts and she agrees. She said she would have had no issue at all emailing my staff to delegate tasks.

Maybe this is petty of me, but I told her DON’T do it. If the RM isn’t going to call her and ask her herself, then I’ll take care of it Monday.

Hello! I am a soon to be DSP for autistic adults and am absolutely terrified. I haven’t even started on the field training yet (still in the classroom period) and have been having light panic attacks about my future performance in this field making myself sick. The stakes are so so high and it seems like there’s such little margin for error which makes me feel like I’m destined to mess up. What are some general tips for someone who is starting that is scared to death of negatively impacting our individuals? The company I’m with seems really good and I want to make it work, any advice is helpful!!

Hey guys. I have been a DSP/L1MA/Caregiver for almost two years now. I’ve mostly worked with adults with disabilities in ISL home settings. I just applied for a job as a medication aide at a retirement home. I am nervous about it because 1) I have a speech disorder. My consumers at work can mostly understand me just fine, but I’m worried that the seniors at this job won’t. 2) I have ASD level 1 that goes hand and hand with said speech disorder. What are your guys thoughts? I would be working overnights as a medication aide, so there’s not a whole lot of interaction besides when I’m going to have to care for clients. Also, the job didn’t really say what all it entailed, so if anyone here is a medication aide in assisted living or a retirement home, what all are your job duties? Thanks so much!

I work in a day program that runs out of my church. I've been there for three years, and during my first summer, I noticed that one of our volunteers becomes aggressive with a couple of our adults (stepping on toes when they aren't "quiet enough," pushing them, taking food away if they aren't eating as fast as he would like). I've reported it time and time again and a couple of weeks ago, my direct supervisor told me that "he's never actually hurt the adults, so it's okay." Last week, I escalated to her boss, the overall director of the ministry, who told me she's never heard that this is a problem. It feels like nobody cares about it happening but me and a couple other people. Additionally, today, one of our adults became extremely aggressive towards other participants in the program (grabbing them and staff, swinging bags around the room, running away). My boss wouldn't remove him from the situation and when my coworker and I tried to move the rest of the group into another room, our boss allowed the participant who was aggressive to follow us out there where he continued his behavior, directly putting the other adults at risk. To top it all off, ever since I had that conversation with my boss's boss last week, my boss has essentially been giving me the silent treatment (I'm 20 and she's 40 by the way. I just think that's wildly pathetic). The only time she speaks to me is if I give her information about our participants, such as noticing that memory loss has gotten worse for one that has developed early onset dementia, and it's just to blow me off by saying "you don't need to harp on everything that's wrong over and over again."

Having other adults in the program look me in the eye today and say "I'm scared" because we couldn't get the participant who was aggressive separated since my boss was unwilling to do the hard work to make that happen broke my heart. I don't even think that the participant who was grabbed by his peer's parents were notified. What I'm struggling with is the fact that I can't imagine staying in a program which doesn't seem to care about the safety of the adults we work with. But I love my participants. There's nothing that makes me happier than when I see them genuinely excited to see me and wanting to talk to me and share things about their lives. I'm worried that the program is going to quite simply implode before too long, and I'm worried if I leave I'll speed that process along. But I am already so anxious about going in on Thursday and I'm stuck on where I'm supposed to go from here.

Ive been a DSP for about seven years with no past record of abuse or anything but due to a recent incident i was in an altercation with a patient that led to them saying i abuse them every day this is not the case and this individual is prone to lying and not in their right mind to a point where they make up full delusions and scenarios and react to them like they are real but due to their statements ive been put on administrative leave awaiting if the state will investigate should i be expecting to lose my job? and im being told this might take weeks

How do I get a Summer Job as a DSP? I have no experience and cannot cook. what I do have is experience with lots of autistic friends and part of a Psych degree

Hi! I just started as a DSP about three months ago and have really liked it! I work for a group home of adults who have physical and mental disabilities.

I have a shift lead who will NOT stop dumping their work on me. Any time I am on shift with her, she constantly asks me to go change her client or get something started for them, etc. I don’t mind helping at all but when it’s constant throughout the shift and happens every single shift, that tells me something. I’ve had several other employees tell me that she’s being lazy and that I need to stop helping her because she used to do the same to them, etc. It’s getting to the point that I’ll be doing something for her while also needing to do stuff for my clients. The moment she sees that I am sitting down she wants me to do stuff for her clients.99% of the time she does not offer to help me. A coworker had the idea of me telling them that I could take over the activity that she is doing and let her start on her client, but lately she’s been asking in such a way that I can’t redirect it or say no. I’ve started dreading my shifts because of her and I’ve almost walked out a couple times. I just don’t know what to do. I can’t keep juggling my clients and helping her. Keep in mind she does NOT need help, she WANTS help. A lot of times she’ll ask for help so that she can leave early and go home. This is a 50 year old woman btw. She knows what she’s doing and she thinks i’m dumb. Please give me advice on what to do or say because I am at my wits end. TIA.

A company will not long term run a house with only one client and 4 staff will they? We had a death last year and another move to a different place that could give more care. They keep trying to get 1-2 more clients but it keeps on not happening. It's been only 1 client since before the new year started. I'm starting to look for new jobs because I don't want to lose my job and not have insurance. This client will be so sad though and I'm evidently the client's most favored staff that takes him to parks and the grocery store even every so often. It'll be sad to leave but I feel I need to even if I lose my vacation time because I want to keep having steady health insurance benefits.

I got offered a part time lifeguard job but that's no good without insurance so I'm looking and applying to different places that aren't DSP jobs. I suppose I could find another local DSP job too maybe if I had to. To me I just get this feeling with it still being one client that they will close the house down which I was told "could" eventually happen by my manager but no indication of how soon. I think it might last for several more months but if the client goes to hospital, summer camp or vacation then I'm forced to use vacation time and thus not have time later for my own use which really makes me angry.

I’ve been a DSP since November at my current job and have been a DSP in the past before.

Here, when it comes asking for time off, they require you to find your own coverage. At my previous DSP job I never had to do this, granted this was awhile ago. I’m told it’s considered bad practice, but is this trend becoming more common in the field?

Also, my manager and I had an…encounter where she essentially yelled at me on the phone for emailing her and HER boss a few times when asking about time off I got coverage for. (It hadn’t been approved, though I asked months in advance and found coverage.) She demanded “Are you going out of the country?” I replied no. She approved the time off, but essentially told me “next time we may not be able to approve it”. And she essentially said “you don’t need to message all of these people, only I can approve your time off.” I cced her boss, the scheduler, and another supervisor who is essentially HR on behalf of the clients (who encouraged me to email her when I told her my situation of having to message my boss about this several times.) In general, I felt my manager was very rude and unprofessional with me, especially with asking an invasive question like “are you going out of the country?” Why does that matter? Is it work related?

Anyway, is any of this normal/typical in the field? I feel like even at the most understaffed and underfunded places, finding coverage for a shift is a manager’s job, not mine. I’m not getting paid manager’s wages, let alone a livable wage.

And yes, I’m seeking leaving or at least an LOA cause all of this is just the tip of the iceberg of what is giving me psychic damage. 🙃🙃🙃

I’ve been at this agency for nearly a decade. I’ve held hair while people puked, held their hands during scary procedures, and while they died. I started as DSP, managed some houses, community access, was a job coach, and am leaving my current position as a QA Coordinator. I’m so lost and can’t find other comparable work. The pay always sucked until the last couple years but the people are incredible. I just… staff are miserable, participants are miserable, and I’ve done everything I can to make it better and it just isn’t working. I’m so burnt out, management is toxic, nobody wants to change, and I’m sick over it. I’m not sure what the point of this post is, I just needed to get this out somewhere. Idk how I’m gonna tell the clients. We’ve been through so much, probably too much, together, and I feel like I’m letting them down. But I don’t have anything left in me. My mental health is in the ground, my meds don’t seem to be working, and I don’t want to leave, but this isn’t sustainable. Idk if it’s like this everywhere but if it is, please don’t let yourself get to this point. I’ve accidentally filled a void for several participants I had no business filling & now they’re gonna be worse off for it than had I never shown up. This sucks.

LOCATION: Oregon

Does anyone have experience or advice regarding a founded OTIS complaint? What happens? How does it show up on a background check? Are you automatically ineligible to work as a DSP? I Know the finding can be appealed, but our union does not assist, and lawyers are telling me 10-15K IF one takes the case. I am looking for information, and if anyone has been through this. Were you able to get any help or support??

This happened the last time I was new as a DSP, except I had no experience and was new to everything. I get lots of people who catch attitudes or completely ignore me when I come to the house to train and it sucks. The first time I trained to become a DSP, they straight up said “nobody told me I was training, I’m not going to train you.” So I learned so much from watching and having to insert myself…safe to say it was not easy and I went through a lot the first time. Especially because I was put to stay at a house marked as “high intensity behavior” when I had no experience. My second time around with a different company (I left the first one when my mom got very sick) I’m experiencing the same. Of course I feel more comfortable inserting myself in the places I have experience in (with permission first ofc) but it is a little more complicated to ask where I can help or if I’m over stepping my boundaries. So I’m stuck between not doing too much but maybe not doing enough. These are shadow shifts which I know are more letting the main DSP work while you watch. It’s been difficult, they’ve either been rude, not doing anything besides sitting and sleeping on shift, or just kinda ignoring me while I awkwardly ask every now and then if I could help with anything. 😪

I guess I’m just wondering if I should work on just stepping back or if I should assert myself more? I feeling a little lost even having 3 years experience

So this is embarrassing to even type out because I feel like it's middle school shit, but there is a client that doesn't like me and it's been bothering me. I am a people pleaser and I'm trying to get better at it. I'm in a dayhab program and I'm assigned to her T-Logs/ISPs every four weeks, but I dread the week I'm with her.

I have to prompt her to use the bathroom, and she says "I don't need anyone to tell me to go to the bathroom" meanwhile she deals with incontinence. One time I literally told her "yes I do, it's part of my job." I prompt her to do her ISPs and she says "No, I don't want to do them with you." She loudly says "NO" when I approach her and tells me to stop bugging her.

It's not like I can just leave her alone, as I have to do my fuckin job. Am I even cut out for this job as a people pleaser? I don't bend over backwards to get individuals everything they could ever want, but I do like being liked. I've asked coworkers and they say she is like this to newer staff, but maybe y'all have tips to get on her good side? Thanks for anything y'all can give me.

i don’t want to fully quit the company but i don’t know how to remove this family i can mentally not work with anymore but the system is kind of set up weird i’ve never really met my supervisor the family kind of just hired me after my interview and that’s it and i also worry about dealing with hostility from the family if i have to at least give 2 week notice

If you’ve been in this field long enough, you have probably experienced burnout…In your opinion, what are some ways that management/companies can do to help fix employee burnout?

I think instead of 40 hour weeks, have 32 (I think that should be every job tbh.. not reason for 40 hour work weeks anymore) and higher pay.

I F19 started working as a DSP in the beginning of December and it started out great! The longer I’m here the harder time I’m having with the residents. One in particular, a man in his 30s with down syndrome loves to give me a hard time. It started with him just refusing to do any chores when he was assigned to me. This was manageable, I’d just ask one of my coworkers to get him started and then I’d take over. Now I’m working 3rd shift and he gets a shower around 5am and he’s been refusing to cooperate. Because the only other staff here sleeps at night it makes it hard for me to manage. I feel terrible when I have to wake him up.

For example, yesterday morning the resident went to the bathroom, assisted me to shower, and was seemingly in a great mood. When we were done with the shower he shut the water off but wouldn’t leave the shower. I did everything I could to get him ready while he was still in the shower but he was naked from the waist down and refused to move. He looked so cold and I could tell he was tired of standing but he wouldn’t budge. He stood there for at least 15 minutes, I didn’t give him any attention and even tried leaving the room for 5 minutes. The first time my coworker asked him to exit the shower he did.

He’s definitely stubborn with all the employees here, but I’m the only one he behaves this badly for. I’ve tried giving him more options, for example asking him if he’d like to sweep or mop when he’s not willing to do chores or if he’d like to wear blue or green shorts when he’s not cooperative in the bathroom.

I’ve never scolded him and I try to never tell him to do things or even really ask. I just suggest and try to be as patient and playful as I can.

When we have free time he’ll hold my hand, hug me, and say my name (he’s hardly verbal). So I’m really not sure where this came from.

Any advice welcome!!!!

So I got a question, in my area in my DDSO and in my region I’ve been noticing that management seems to think that when management utilizes a 104 form, which is change of assignment or change to the schedule , shift and past day that you are to SIGN the 104 form, can anybody tell me anywhere on a 104 form that they see a spot that is designated for a signature? Because I disagree there is nothing that says you’re supposed to sign a 104 form, think about it , why would you sign a form when management has the right to make changes to the schedule, (as long as it’s in line with civil service law, policy and contract) because if they are reassigning within the bounds of their ability, then there’s no reason to have to sign it, (hence why there is no signature spot). an email is the only thing they need to do or hand it to you physically but to say you have to sign It is not only redundant but I think is %100 incorrect and I find it remarkable an entire region seems to think you need to sign a form that doesn’t require signature.it even shows that you don’t need to sign it on the form. Any other feedback?