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People make difference for those with disabilities

When people with intellectual disabilities and their families come to Community Connections, we offer them services. These services are defined by the state of Colorado and provided through a combination of state tax revenue and federal Medicaid dollars. We talk about the individual and family needs and determine what services are available to meet those needs. Then we go through a complicated formal system of authorizing those services.

But after all is said and done, “services” make very little difference in peoples’ lives. The people providing those services do.

With National Direct Support Professionals Week 2014 just ending, it is a great chance to reflect on the impact of paid employees in the lives of people with disabilities. To bring you up to speed, a DSP is what we call a person who is employed to support an individual with disabilities. A DSP can work for an agency or directly for the person.

If you think about your own life and what has aided your growth and successes, I’ll bet a list of names or faces will come to mind. I’m less likely to think “Centenary College prepared me for life,” than I am to think “Professor Smith really challenged me to think critically and come up with creative solutions to problems.” Even when we evaluate the support or service we have received from a business or organization, it is generally the service we receive from individual representatives of that business that makes or breaks our experience.

It is no different for people with disabilities. We can come up with the most amazing plan for services, but if there is not an amazing person to provide those services, we won’t get anywhere.

I don’t use the word “amazing” lightly. Really effective DSPs are amazing. They listen to an individual and support that person’s priorities and goals, not their own. They think creatively about how to overcome perceived barriers. And honestly, they often buck the system because those formal paid “services” out there can be more of a hindrance to success than a help.

The amazing people in someone’s life don’t have to be paid to be there. Like any of us, family members, friends or social and religious groups can play a critical role in helping us reach our goals. Sometimes, we just need more support than those can provide. (I’m not sure there’s a single one of my friends I would ask to fix my gas line. No offense, guys.) When social connections aren’t enough, a DSP can fill in the gaps.

National Direct Support Professional Week helps us spotlight these committed employees and recognize their contribution to our communities by focusing on improving wages and increasing training and credentialing opportunities. For more information about how to join the campaign to support DSPs, visit the National Association of Direct Support Professionals website at www.nadsp.org. Learn about becoming a DSP in our local community at www.CommunityConnectionsCO.org.

Tara Kiene is the director of case management with Community Connections Inc.



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