ADVOCATE FOR INDEPENDENCE
Empowering People Through Advocacy

June 2021
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A monthly publication from our Disability Rights and Advocacy Specialist,
Patrick Ober, J.D., Ph.D.
Hello again, CILO supporters and Disability Advocates! Below is our monthly highlight of advocacy and policy issues to know and learn about related to people with disabilities and independent living.


Direct Support Professionals:
A Crisis That Needs Your Attention and Help
 

Direct support professionals (DSP’s) provide an array of critical services that make it possible for many people with disabilities to live, work, and thrive in their communities. Many DSP’s “perform multiple tasks which, at any given time during the course of their work, may be similar to those of teachers, nurses, psychologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, counselors, dieticians, chauffeurs, personal trainers, and others.” For thousands of people with disabilities, direct support staff are the single most important form of assistance in their lives – without a DSP, these people might be forced into assisted living and nursing homes, losing their independence and inclusion in the community.

However, people with disabilities across the country have been struggling for years to employ and keep direct support staff. In the United States, the annual turnover rate—the percentage of workers who leave each year— for direct care workers is 51.3%, which is 14 times higher than the average turnover for all other industries. In 2019 alone, over 43% of DSP's left their positions, and one-third of direct support professionals quit within the first six months of employment. 

WHY IS THE TURNOVER RATE SO HIGH FOR DIRECT SUPPORT STAFF?

  • The national average hourly wage for direct support staff is $13.92 an hour – In Ohio, the average pay for direct support staff is $12.10 an hour, or $16,200 each year.
  • In Ohio, the lowest wage for someone to meet their basic needs—like rent, food, and healthcare—is $13.16 an hour. Retail workers make an average of $12.14 an hour, and office clerks make an average of $16.37 an hour. Recently, COSTCO employees began making at least $16 an hour.
  • When an agency is short staffed, the existing direct support professionals usually must work overtime (50-60 hours a week) to meet the needs of the people served by their agency. As one direct support professional put it, “Mandatory overtime leads to caregiver burnout. Caregiver burnout causes low morale. And low morale causes lack of care for the folks… Many of the staff are looking for other jobs and it is absolutely terrible for the individuals I support."

IS THE DIRECT SUPPORT STAFF CRISIS ONLY HAPPENING IN OHIO?
No, it is a crisis across the country. People with disabilities and their friends, families, and fellow advocates, are currently crying out across the country for states to make changes to pay, recruitment, and support of direct care workers.
  • In Delaware, the State passed a law in 2018 called the McNesby Act, which made “an important commitment to fully fund services to adults with I/DD. However, it was not an appropriation bill, so there was no funding attached to it.” The state has refused to include funding for those services in their budget, and as a result, direct support staff wages remain “at a rate of $9.62/hour,” barely above the federal minimum wage.
  • In Tennessee, advocates this past year were finally able to persuade members of the state’s house finance committee to approve funding be included in their state budget to increase the wage for direct support staff from $10 to $12.50 an hour statewide.
  • In Maine, disability advocates are pushing the state legislature to provide an increase in wages for the more than more than 33,000 people in the state who work as direct support staff. For example, one DSP, a certified nursing assistant, makes just $12.50 an hour, works more than 40 hours a week to ensure her bills are paid, and makes “$50 too much to get government assistance” to help her keep the job she loves but also make financial ends meet.
  
  • Across North Carolina, the average hourly pay of direct care workers is $10.31/hour, “roughly $5 an hour lower than retail jobs at corporations such as Target, Walmart, Starbucks and Costco.” Legislation was finally proposed to increase those wages this past year when state lawmakers were finally made aware of the crisis. State Representative Tim Moffitt (R-Hendersonville), the primary sponsor for the proposed bill, has a brother with severe autism and had no idea how much his own brother’s support staff earned. “When I found out what the wages were, candidly, I was embarrassed,” Moffitt said. “These direct care workers are so valued in our lives. We haven’t really appropriately valued them from a compensation standpoint.”

WE NEED YOUR ADVOCACY HELP TO FIX THE DIRECT SUPPORT CRISIS!!

Below are a few ways you can support the advocacy efforts to increase DSP wages, recruitment, and retention, so people with disabilities can obtain the support they need to live independently in their communities:
Recent Legislative and Policy Issues for Disability Advocates to Follow
Changing Offensive and Dated Language About
Disability in Ohio Law

Ohio is finally catching up to the rest of the world in using appropriate language when speaking about people with disabilities. House Bill 281, called the Mental Health and Disability Terminology Act, would take out and replace antiquated, offensive language in existing Ohio laws with more appropriate, person-first language. For example, “handicapped persons” would be replaced with persons with disabilities;” “the mentally ill or criminally insane” would be replaced with “persons with mental illnesses;” or “mobility impaired person” to “person with a mobility impairment;” “physiological defect or deficiency” to “deficiency impairment.” This legislation appears to have support from both democrats and republicans, which is a rarity in politics nowadays!

 
Allowing Virtual Testimony by Citizens on
Ohio Legislation

When pieces of legislation are proposed, they are debated in legislative committees before they are voted on. This committee process is where citizens, professionals, and advocates get a chance to testify directly to lawmakers about their support or opposition of that legislation. Historically, people must either physically attend those meetings to testify, or submit written testimony if they cannot be there in person. Written testimony is typically considered much less persuasive than being able to speak directly with lawmakers and answer their questions during these hearings. 

Two state lawmakers from Cincinnati have proposed bills to set up a system to allow for virtual testimony to be given for people who cannot travel to Columbus, but still want their voices heard about an issue. As State Senator Cecil Thomas says, “It’s not fair to ask Ohioans to travel all the way to Columbus to weigh in on proposed legislation… most Ohioans aren’t able to leave their job or family on a weekday, and many don’t have access to transportation. Many Ohioans have disabilities or health conditions that also make it difficult to testify in-person. This bill would allow all Ohioans to participate in the legislative process.”
 

State Amendment Seeks Oversight of Federally Funded Disability Rights Organization

The Ohio Senate just this week voted to approve over 100 amendments to the Ohio budget, including an amendment that could detrimentally impact Ohioans living with disabilities. The Protection and Advocacy Transparency Amendment would subject Disability Rights Ohio (DRO), a private nonprofit that receives no state dollars, to unprecedented state legislative oversight. As Disability Rights Ohio Executive Director Kerstin Sojberg said in a statement, DRO is “a federally authorized protection and advocacy program for people with disabilities (P&A). Every state and territory has a P&A, but this would make Ohio the only state in the country with this type of legislative oversight.”

Disability Rights Ohio has been designated as Ohio’s protection and advocacy organization since 1980, which requires the organization to investigate abuse and neglect as an independent advocate. According to DRO, if the state were to pass the amendment, and the federal government decided that Ohio no longer had “an independent P&A” program, it could also jeopardize over $3 million in federal funding for Ohio’s Developmental Disabilities Council, and over $130 million for Opportunities for Ohioans with disabilities for vocational rehabilitation services. If true, this amendment could have enormous consequences for people with disabilities in Ohio.
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