Providing Support During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Direct Support Professionals Survey, 12-Month Follow Up

Over the past 12 months, direct support professionals (DSPs) have experienced high risks of infection, financial hardship, and exhaustion. Many have become ill and lost loved ones. The voices of DSPs matter, now more than ever. Show them you care about their well-being by passing along this confidential survey. The University of Minnesota’s Institute on Community Integration (ICI), in partnership with the National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals (NADSP), developed this survey to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on direct support professionals and identify the most effective ways to protect DSPs and the people they support. Please visit University of Minnesota’s website to complete the survey.

Please forward this survey to the direct support professionals that you employ, including  paid family members. Their answers will be anonymous. National and state-specific results from the survey will be shared widely in September 2021. Two similar surveys of DSPs were conducted by ICI and NADSP and each was completed by more than 9,000 DSPs. Those results are available here. The new survey is for both DSPs who completed the earlier survey and those who did not.

The results for Pennsylvania are available here.