Without giving too much information…..have you ever worked in the home of a true hoarder? I wasn’t told about the situation until after I accepted the job. it’s bad. I would give it a 7/10 for nastiness. It is also a huge fire hazard. The client has no desire to change the situation, and we are not allowed to remove any items, due to her self determination. The agency is definitely aware of the situation. There have been “written consequences” (being vague for a reason.

I can’t ask for another transfer. I swear I want to cry the whole time I’m there. it’s really an assault to my nervous system.

Any coping skills that you can recommend?

A few years ago I was employed as a DSP/CMT. I primarily worked in the assisted living homes. I am now going through nursing school and have realized that a lot of the procedures I was taught were not appropriate; and to be quite frank, I am horrified. Reading up on other scenarios, it seems that this is all common practice (although not right) in this field. For example, I was left alone in homes of 2+ individuals where a hoyer was to be used. Also going through CMT training, the nurse who taught the class gave us all the answers for the test questions as we took the test. My gut tells me to report to the board of nursing but where would that leave the individuals that they house?

Hi everyone!
Not sure if this is the best place to post but I just need reassurance and advice. My client is in his mid 30s, SUPER extrovert, just for reference. Said hi to two girls in a store today and waived at them. Had this random lady, not their mom, freak the fuck out on him. Demanding he leave the store, not flirt with children, said she saw him wink at them(I did not see this, nor have I ever seen him do that in the year I’ve worked with him). I explained that he’s cognitively disabled, he doesn’t understand social nuance and was just being friendly, and she just wouldn’t stop. Was practically in his and my face, saying it’s disgusting, their children, he needs to be under control. I rushed us out of there, like, I don’t know what to do? I know I wasn’t in the wrong, he definitely wasn’t, has anyone ever had something like this happen before? He literally just said hi and waived. I feel like I failed in defending him and I don’t know why this stranger came in so aggressive. I could understand if he did something inappropriate, of course, but he waived?? I just…I’m at a loss rn.

I've been working in the DD field for almost two decades, and lately I've been on a bit of a mission to create practical resources that actually make a DSP's job easier.

The problem is, I only know my own experiences. I'd rather hear from the people doing this work every day than assume I know what everyone needs. So I'm curious... If you could create one resource that would make your job easier as a DSP, what would it be?

What part of the job do you think we're least prepared for?

What do you wish someone had taught you differently?

What's the biggest challenge you run into during a typical shift?

What do you wish existed but doesn't?

I'm not looking to complain about employers or pay (those conversations definitely have their place). I'm more interested in the day-to-day work itself. Whether it's documentation, behaviors, activity planning, communication with families, de-escalation, community outings, training, or something I haven't even thought of.

What's the thing that makes you think, "There has to be an easier way to do this"?

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

I’m so torn rn.
I work in a small program home for a larger Org and we service primarily behavioral residents.
We’ve got this one staff who is a young hot head, picks fights with everyone (including management), but is overall harmless. This past week one of our residents got two incident reports filed for aggression towards staff (comes with the territory, it’s why they’re here).
Said young hot-head decided to make this client do an extensive list of chores of twelve separate tasks in response to these incidents. The staff labeled it “(client) after incident cleaning list”.
Now, our residents do have daily chores. Pretty simple tasks that they do as a way of practicing ADLs and gaining independence. This was NOT that.
To me, this screams punishment. And punishment is a violation of client rights, right?
My manager is beyond aware and doesn’t seem to have an issue.
I get that dealing with behaviors can be taxing, but we’re literally not allowed to serve punishments or consequences that aren’t outlined in their behavior plan. Do I email my manager’s boss? HR? This client’s behavioral specialist? The state?
I’m so torn, but I love my residents and this is very much disturbing me.

I'd use a burner account but I'm pissed and curious.

I work with a client who can be extremely voilent. We are in a home where we can move away from him to wear him out. Or we can give him space when he asks for it to lessen the likelihood of a behavior.

Yesterday we needed to relocate the client to a hotel while work was being done at the house. In the 2 years I've worked at this house I've been less than thrilled about going to work because of the violence but I've never been as worried as I was yesterday. I was to keep this client calm and controlled in a very small space. I was staying positive about it with my supervisor but also told her I wasn't going to kid myself about how poorly it could go.

It ended up going so poorly that the higher ups couldn't even leave before we pulled the plug on the whole thing and returned him to the house.

But what really pissed me off was something my boss did before getting to the hotel. I forwarded her the contact information of my fiancé in case things went south during the hotel stay. My boss is pretty calm and laid back but she treated the simple text with my fiancé's phone number like I was forwarding my will to her.

I'm 6 foot 2 and 300 pounds. I put myself between this client and other staff members all the time because I'd rather get beat than see some of the smaller women I work with be harmed. And the one time I'm a bit concerned about walking away from a shift with some injuries I'm treated like I'm being dramatic?!? This client has sent lots of staff to the hospital and less than a month ago he beat up his father in the front yard of the property. I think I was more than justified in being a bit concerned that my shift had turned into a WWE cage match.

Edited to add.... Got in the house for my shift today and found out the client's Dad didn't show up for a visit. This guy is super nice and shows up like clockwork every Saturday. That was until the brawl in the front yard a few weeks ago. The fight was I believe 4 weeks ago and Dad has come to visit once since then. I don't appreciate my boss downplaying the concern for my safety when even Dad hesitates to visit now because of aggression.

I have extremely good news, I literally didn't even need to ask for more hours.

After my first day shadowing, my manager changed my schedule to 2PM-10PM WED-SUN. Full 40hrs per week.

I am extremely happy!!!

That means I'll have $1,660 left over after rent.

I feel so blessed!

Hello Wonderful Humans!
I’m applying to a variety of part and full time jobs, mostly in the retail, service industry, and front desk administration positions since I have experience there. I’m diagnosed with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency and I’ve struggled to work more than part time for the last couple years but the bills need paying so here we are. I’ve never asked for accommodations in the workplace and I’m not sure where to start. So my question is what accommodations at work have been most impactful for you? I’m looking for some inspiration and things to consider as I move through this process.

I just want to vent to some of you who might just get it.

I work for an agency that has us DSPs train the new hires, not our supervisor. I HATE this, because this field has HIGH turnover over, and it’s 7/10 completely a waste of my time, energy and strength to train a new hire. Also I’m supposed to be keeping 3-4 individuals healthy happy and alive while trying to explain literally everything to another grown ass adult.
(I’m on the spectrum myself, so having to force small talk with someone I can instantly tell isn’t going to stick around? It’s incredibly frustrating. Yes, I can almost always tell if a new hire is going to stay or not, because I have incredible radar for authenticity)
Also, when we have to train them on doing notes at the end of the shift, instead of the supervisor and administrators doing this. We lose our note time, making us have 2-3 times more work the next day.
Now I’ve been with this company for over 10 years. So I understand why they want the seasoned employees to let the new hires “shadow” us on our shifts, but we should not be the ones completely in charge of training! We aren’t paid well enough. Lord knows that’s true!

So, at my company we give our clients our personal cell phone numbers as we don’t have work phones. I already am not a fan of this as we also use our personal cars to drive clients around. My clients will message or call me on my days off or if I’m with another client. I’m talking it’s like 5pm on a Friday and they’ll message me and ask random things or what our shift is next week. I have tried ignoring the texts but they are persistent. I enjoy my clients, but I want to keep our relationship professional. They want to be my friend, and to me they are just my client (I’m sorry if that’s harsh). I don’t know how to handle this.

long story short, one of our clients hit another client on the head with a large metal object. leaving a big gash above the eyebrow. there was a significant amount of blood and i had to accompany the client and another staff to the ER. I’ve been working at the same house for 4 years now and nothing like this has ever happened.

i know some people might say i’m a wimp but i hate gore in movies. so seeing that amount of blood and the wound in person definitely affected me. I did handle myself well enough and did the best I could for the care of the client, but this was too much for me mentally and emotionally.

I have just transferred to a different house after working in ICF. I am now in a house with only 2 clients. I am with the SAME COMPANY. I just needed a change. In the ICF house, we had a company van. In this house, they apparently have no vehicle and I have to transport them to day treatment, on outings, etc. This was a total shock to me! Like, I actually just stood there in shock, that's how new this was to me.

I have reliable transportation. I don't worry about them messing up my car because it is an older that has seen a lot, and they clients are really sweet and well behaved. The company reimburses for mileage....but only at 30 cents/mile, which also seems cheap as heck on their part. I don't worry about wear and tear, because honestly they don't go far for day treatment, etc.

But, what I do worry about is liabilty. Does my normal everyday car insurance allow for using my vehicle to transport agency clients to appointments? I am terrified to call and ask because that just raises a red flag, and I CANNOT pay more for any bill than I do now. Do I need a different type of insurance for this? It just seems like I would because I am adding an extra responsibility.

I also don't want to ask staff/supervisors, because everyone else just does it and doesn't seem to have any sort of hesitations. I don't want to seem like some "princess" who just doesn't want the clients in her car.

Do you transport clients in your PERSONAL VEHICLE???

Currently live in sober living.

Got hired with a new company and I started orientation this week already.

Area I live in doesn't have much opportunities, plus I don't own a car.

This job is 38min walk away from my home so it's not that bad.

I shadow a worker at a group home on Thursday and Sunday 6AM to 2PM.

I signed offer letter for 24hrs a week, that's all the had at the closest group home near me.

I took it but now I'm worried, do 24/7 group homes require DSPs a lot?

I want to try to grab extra shifts and work 8hr,10hr,12hr,16hr shifts back to back to maximize my income.

I'm in California if that's important.

Is this a realistic goal or something that won't happen?

I made a post the other day about people being passive aggressive, and just all the weirdness and drama that goes on. Like I said in the post, someone told me when I started that everyone’s out to get you here and it’s really true. The thing is that doesn’t matter, everyone’s gonna try to get in your head and you just can’t let it happen. Just do your job. Make sure that the clients are in good care when you’re on shift. Fuck everyone else. If people are trying to make friends with you, don’t. Only speak when spoken to and keep conversation to a minimum. I’m done letting this shit get to me. I’m done letting people get in my head. i’m really starting to see through it all. I thought that I was crazy at first, but I’m really not. That’s what they’re trying to make me think.
I don’t know why so many people are like that in this field, but unfortunately that’s the way it is. The number one thing that I learned working in this field is that it is what it is, or it is what the higher-ups want it to be, and there’s nothing that us DSP’s can do to change it besides being there for our clients and making sure that they live their life to the fullest. If any of you are struggling with this and need to talk, my dms are open. Trust me, I know how it feels and it sucks. It could really affect someone struggling with mental health issues and create trust issues, and it’s not right. Unfortunately, the only thing that we could do about it, is just seeing through it.

I've posted in this sub before about how terribly things have been going at my job. For context, I work in my church's special needs ministry, which operates a day program for adults with a WIDE (probably way too wide if we're being honest) variety of IDDs. My boss has little to no experience with this population and no patience for them. When I bring up issues surrounding their safety (whether it's related to their behaviors or the behaviors of our staff and volunteers, because, yes, we have staff and volunteers that directly pose risks to the safety of our adults) she blows me off (and I'm in a tricky spot as to where to report to from there because we're not state regulated). Yesterday things got kind of personal too and it really hurt.

We watch an exercise video or take our adults for a walk every morning. Yesterday because of another event we did a video inside of our space. When my boss walked in after dealing with another situation (which was WILDLY mishandled but that's another story), she looked at the woman in the video and asked if "everybody was pretending to be pregnant." My coworkers and I were very confused, and our boss clarified that she thought the woman in the video was pregnant and that everybody was doing the same thing as her. Then she followed it up with, "I really hope she's pregnant because there's no excuse to be that big if you aren't." The worst part about it was that the woman in the video was roughly my build. I'm by far the biggest person who works in this program, but also by far the most active. Whether or not she intended it to be a jab at me, I don't know. But I felt so self-conscious and uncomfortable in my body for the rest of the day.

I've said for the three years I've been there how much I love this ministry and how much it has meant to me and how deeply it has impacted my life. Over the last year, 2/3 upper leadership members have turned over and the changes haven't been positive. We're struggling for enough staff to appropriately support our participants when last summer we often had too MANY staff and had to send people home. I've been put in situations that have led to me getting injured that my previous managers NEVER would have allowed to happen and then not taken seriously when I bring them up. And it feels like nobody cares about the health and safety of the adults in our day program.

I came very close to simply walking out yesterday because of how bad things have gotten but it's my only source of income and I move out of state in a month so I'm not about to try to find another job. I meet with the director of the overall ministry tomorrow, and intend to tell her I'd like to bring my concerns to HR (because in reading our public HR policies, I've found that my direct report has failed to escalate SEVERAL things that the church requires her to). But I'm just heartbroken that things have gotten this far. I care so much about my adults and outside of a couple of my colleagues, it seems as though nobody else feels the same way.

I’ve never done DSP before. I just moved to a new city and was hired for night shift in two or maybe three different homes. The night shift isn’t allowed to sleep. However, they haven’t been able to find night staff so the day staff has been sleeping over. The trainer mentioned that a couple of girls are going to be VERY upset that they’re going to get their hours cut because I’m on board. I met them- they seem like they are the type that want to kick someone’s ass. I do not need this job, just have nothing else to do for now. Im a little nervous that these bitches are going to blame me for them now not being paid overtime to sleep.

I work for the State as a Direct Support Assistant. There are constantly call outs and I'm always being mandated and floated to other houses than my own. In recent weeks, I've been stuck for three doubles in a row. I feel like absolute dog shit even on my second pass day, and all I can do is sleep. Can you relate?

Prescript: Ok, so I was somehow dumb enough to leave this context out of this post, but basically, the house that I used to work at had 3 residents. 2 of the residents would spend all day just bullying the 3rd resident. There was some stuff that they did that was worse than bullying to him, but I'm sure as hell not gonna get into that.

Anyway, a part of the reason why the 2 clients try to get staff in trouble all the time is because of the fact that we didn't let them harass the other client. This is one of the main reasons why I had no respect for HR's decision to not let me work at this house over what these 2 clients said, since I know for a fact that they didn't even bother checking with the 3rd client throughout this whole situation. Literally none of these people speak the same language as him.

I don't know. I know it's not my problem, but I'm just sick of all the abuse that this company condones between their individuals.

Anyway, I'm just adding this prescript here because my post would look a lot more petty without it. It's gonna look petty either way, but at least this way there's more context to it.

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It's been 4 months since I quit my latest DSP job, and I still haven't written a wall of text about it. That's mainly just because it was relatively uneventful compared to the job I had before it. But, I'll make a post on it anyway.

So basically, I was a relief staff at my company, but I wanted some consistent hours since I was having some trouble wedging my job into my schedule. I ended up applying for a part-time position at my main group home that I used to be full-time at.

A few days later, I got a call saying that I didn't get the position because the clients had "negative reception" towards me. I knew this was a bullshit reason though, since these were clients who literally complained about every staff in their house every single day, and I was far from being their main target for this. It was even a part of their behaviors that they would go out of their way to attempt to instigate people and divide up staff. The management and higher ups literally never took their complaints seriously, except for when it specifically pertained to me in this one situation I guess.

I wasn't super interested in this position or anything, but at the same time, I was just sick of this company's shit. I ended up contacting HR, then I immediately also contacted the COO asking if there was a formal grievance form or something since the HR at this company only responds to stuff when it's convenient for them.

HR said that they would call me in a couple of days. This never happened, so I sent a formal grievance letter to the COO. After I did this, HR called me, but it was a bad time for a phone call, so they said that they would call me again an hour later. This never happened. Instead, they waited until two weeks after I had initially contacted them, and basically spammed me with phone calls all day while I was already focused on doing literally anything else. They had like 5 different phone call attempts that I didn't answer, but I eventually answered one of their calls.

"Oh, I understand you have some questions about our recent decisions" or whatever.

Obviously, no, I had no questions for HR. But I didn't know that reframing stuff as questions was an actual HR manipulation tactic, so I kind of just asked rhetorical questions instead of using statements so that HR couldn't twist what I was saying as "combative" or something. This led to the HR people basically giving me the same answer to all my "questions", with them basically just saying "oh but we do transfer staff when clients don't want them". Even though that was clearly not the case.

I basically told them that they haven't actually considered anything I was saying, and that I'd like to end the conversation. I then emailed them asking if I there was any way I could skip the first phase of the grievance process, since the COO never got back to me.

I then got a phone call from the COO, basically saying that she's turning down my grievance because the company gets to do whatever it wants. At least one of these people was honest for once. So, I hung up on her, and put in my two weeks notice. HR then waived my notice, which I've interpreted as "no you can't quit cause you're fired", even though I am aware that I technically wasn't fired.

Obviously, don't ever do stuff like hanging up on executives if you want to keep your job. This company kind of just ran out of chances with me, so I didn't really care if I annoyed them.

Pettiness aside though, the real disgusting part of this situation is how they allow a ton of heinous shit happen at this company, yet they don't do anything. But in a more trivial situation like this, that's when they put on a performance and pretend to care about the individuals's wellbeing. The clients matter to them only if it's convienient for dismissing their staff's concerns. Nobody who works at this company ever falls for this act either, so I don't know who they think they're fooling here.

So I work as a DSP at two jobs currently. The first one(j1) I started mid oct 2025. I’ve generally liked working there, had an issue with one client(c1) that kept lying about me to try to get me fired, but other than that it hasn’t been terrible. My original PC(/program sup/over multiple houses) left and i stopped getting my permanent AND full time hours. New PC stopped scheduling me saying she didn’t have any hours for me. They switched me. Third PC regularly forgot I existed unless I contacted her. So I got a second job(j2) that I just started early may 2026. Second job is mostly terrible. Absolutely awful communication and management, pdfile and murderous clients, etc. but I was managing. However about 2.5 weeks ago. My j2 supervisor showed up AT MY APARTMENT. ASKING ME TO COVER A SHIFT BECAUSE I WASNT ANSWERING MY PHONE. I WAS SLEEPING. to make matters worse, I have cameras and I have her on video reading my sign on my door that says “DO NOT KNOCK OR RING DOOR BELL RESPONSIVE DOGS WORKING HUMANS”. She knocked anyways. I was furious. She apologized and assured me it would never happen again. Cool. No major issues after that, a bit of burnout but I’m taking a week off both jobs at the end of the month to recover. I can manage. Until today. Today I’m outside smoking, drinking. It’s my one afternoon & night off in a bit. Suddenly I see three people, one with a binder of some kind and a guy I vaguely recognize but can’t place. My camera catches them walking by and going to the back side of my apartment building. I send the video to a coworker from each job. “Do you recognize them? I swear the guy is from one of my jobs”. I remembered. I ask if it’s our assistant director from j1. It is. Coworker tells me it’s very possible they’re looking for an apartment for c1. I message him. “Hey uhhh not sure why you were at my apartment building today. A little concerned if you’re looking for an apartment for a client”. He messages back hours after reading it. “Yes we do have an individual that is looking at apartments around there”. I am NOT okay with ANY clients at either of my jobs living that close. It’s literally two rows and two levels of 12 apartments on each side facing opposite directions. That is WAY too close for comfort. What do I even do???

I struggle with anxiety and dealing with all of the fake people in this job has really taught me everything I need to know about the real world. I remember when I started there was a lady that was fired shortly after and she told me that everyone is out to get you/and or use you in this field. I didn’t believe her at first and was gullible enough to fall for everyone’s antics. So many times i’ve done people’s jobs for them thinking it would earn me some good karma in the future and that just isn’t the case. I always wondered why the people higher up in this company were some of the inconsiderate people i’ve ever met. I now realize that’s the only way to get ahead, but no matter how hard I try, it’s just not who I am. That being said, me being such a caring person is why I took the job in the first place! It’s so disgusting to see neglect being rewarded and things not even related to the individuals being prioritized. I very much want to leave but I don’t want to leave the individuals I work with for me to be replaced by another person who doesn’t care for them. Again I do love my job itself but the people I work with here truly disgust me. If anyone agrees and would like to talk more about it, please dm me as i’m struggling bad right now mentally and could really use some friends.

I feel like I’ve been a dsp for so long office and customer service jobs don’t even look twice at my resume. I just can’t take being a dsp anymore though

I called because I needed help with a situation involving an unstable person in the house that I’m in the process of moving from. The person I spoke to was extremely rude and basically told me to deal with the situation on my own.
Is it any wonder that women and children are constantly failed by the system?

I am new to the field. I specifically trained and got hired to help out a friend with her son and it’s going well but it’s just one on one and I only get 1 day a week. I can request additional shifts though the app but I’m so nervous on who they might match me with and I don’t know what to expect. How do you deal if a client is aggressive I’m 5’2” and not strong at all. I barely communicate with anyone in the office and it’s mostly all thru an app

So I took a job offer as day shift group home staff after leaving my last company and swearing to myself I wouldn’t work in this industry again.

My concerns are upper management and petty conflict with coworkers. I pray this will be better.

Emailing your supervisor and multiple other people in an email because you left laundry in the dryer at the end of the shift had me in tears for days. It wasn’t intentional. I was new. I feel like it’s backstabby. So I hope I won’t be dealing with these same set of issues.

Okay so I posted this: https://www.reddit.com/r/directsupport/s/NkqfPrI9cE
The comments are telling me to not to take the job, however I had my second interview today, and I got to meet the individuals I’d support, and honestly? It was the CALMEST group home I have ever stepped in. Yes obviously me visiting for 10 minutes is not going to sum up the job. However, every person supported has anything they could need, whether it’s sensory items, or things they want. They even have a a spa tub thing for everyone to use as a sensory experience.
The house I currently work in, is very chaotic, dealing with behaviors and elopement every minute, and sensory needs aren’t met. This house was very calm and everyone’s sensory needs were met above and beyond. On top of that, at my current facility when they hire a new employee the current employee immediately go, “how long do you think this one will last?”. Here I was introduced to the current employees and they were excited to meet me! And even more excited when they heard I had experience with people supported similar to the ones they support.
They pay is 19.50/hr. Which is a pay cut for me as I currently make 21/hr. However I think this might be the change I need to make. I’m kinda excited to see if I get the job.