Request to IDD Providers to Participate in National Survey with Your DSPs

Providing Support During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Direct Support Professionals Survey

The National Alliance of Direct Support Professionals (NADSP), in partnership with the Institute on Community Integration (ICI) at the University of Minnesota, is conducting a survey on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on direct support professionals (DSPs). Your responses will help us identify the most effective ways to protect DSPs and the people you support.

If you provide direct support to people with disabilities, please take the survey. Your answers will be anonymous. National and state-specific results from the survey will be shared widely in March 2021.

A similar survey was conducted by ICI and NADSP in the spring of 2020; it 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 National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals is a national non-profit whose mission is to elevate the status of direct support professionals by improving practice standards; promoting system reform; and advancing their knowledge, skills, and values. Our vision is a world with a highly qualified and professional direct support workforce that partners with, supports, and empowers people with disabilities to lead a life of their choosing.

The Institute on Community Integration at the University of Minnesota is a designated University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities; it is part of a national network of similar programs in major universities and teaching hospitals across the country. ICI’s collaborative research, training, and information-sharing ensure that people with disabilities are valued by, included in, and able to contribute to their communities of choice throughout their lifetime.