NADSP Keynote Presentations

Inspire and empower your conference attendees through dynamic and engaging presentations

The Emerging Roles & Changing Expectations of the Direct Support Workforce

  • Presented by Joseph Macbeth, NADSP Executive Director
  • 1-hour keynote presentation (duration can be customized)
  • Learn about trends in DSP employment, turnover, and vacancy
  • Explore factors affecting DSP workforce issues
  • Discover solutions to improve job satisfaction and retention rates
  • Find out about tools and resources to help reverse this crisis
Description
This conference keynote offers a chance to reflect on the current direct support workforce crisis and the evolving role and expectations of Direct Support Professionals. Many of these changes are driven by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and its Federal Home and Community-Based Services Community Rule. This is a radical departure from which we are accustomed and will ultimately create an emphasis on ‘personal autonomy,’ greater access to ‘integrated settings,’ and helping people to make ‘informed choices’. The focus of this keynote presentation addresses important aspects of the CMS Rule; How do we support people with disabilities to make informed decisions? What is the direct support professional’s role in this process? What are the workforce demographics and projections to fulfill these expectations? Do direct support professionals currently possess the tools, resources and skills to uphold this responsibility? Ultimately, can we find new methods to implement change and address the workforce crisis with new public policy initiatives?
Scheduling

The National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals (NADSP) will work with your organization on scheduling this keynote presentation at your conference. You are also able to bundle this presentation with other training options as breakout sessions, to maximize your resources and obtain the most cost-effective solution for your staff development needs. Please Contact NADSP to schedule this keynote presentation and discuss bundling options.

Practical Applications for Hiring, Developing, Keeping and Empowering Direct Support Professionals

  • Presented by Joseph Macbeth, NADSP Executive Director
  • 1-hour keynote presentation (duration can be customized)
  • Brief overview of our history and workplace culture
  • Strategies for recruitment, onboarding, professional development, and career ladders
  • Receive guidance for developing a stable and highly-skilled DSP workforce
  • Equip your organization to meet the demands of future expectations involving DSPs
Description

“We Have a DSP Problem”: We hear it all of the time and even more so as we emerge from the pandemic and enter back to community life. Home and Community Based Service providers are experiencing a crushingly high percentage of staff turnover, low morale, an inability to recruit and retain a quality direct support professionals to provide the essential supports that people with disabilities and their families deserve. How do we fix these long-standing issues that have been magnified in a highly competitive post-pandemic economy? The answers are complex and require a sound understanding of our field’s history and the impact that workplace culture has on our direct support workforce. Approximately 80 % of those who work in the I/DD service industry that support people with disabilities are direct support professionals. They deliver the day-to-day, moment-to-moment services at the point of interaction that we strive to assist people with disabilities to lead rich and fulfilling lives in the community. In addition to a brief description of our history and workplace culture, this lecture shares detailed information on highly effective recruitment, onboarding, professional development and career-ladder strategies to fortifie and bolster the development of a stable and highly skilled direct support workforce that is prepared to meet the demands of the future expectations.

Scheduling

The National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals (NADSP) will work with your organization on scheduling this keynote presentation at your conference. You are also able to bundle this presentation with other training options as breakout sessions, to maximize your resources and obtain the most cost-effective solution for your staff development needs. Please Contact NADSP to schedule this keynote presentation and discuss bundling options.

Re-Building a Direct Support Workforce in a Post-Pandemic Environment

  • Presented by Joseph Macbeth, NADSP Executive Director
  • 1-hour keynote presentation (duration can be customized)
  • Reflections on the impact of COVID-19 on direct support professionals
  • Find out how perceptions of the DSPs have been shifted due to the pandemic
  • Learn how COVID-19 has presented opportunities to address the workforce “crisis”
  • Discover strategies for creating a meaningful career path for DSPs 
Description

For more than four decades, direct support professionals have been supporting people with disabilities across every community in the country; helping people build and maintain relationships, supporting employment opportunities, supporting skills to live independently, supporting the unique and dignified contributions that build inclusive communities and promoting self-directed lives. Then, almost suddenly in early 2020, everything changed and community (where the work is done) was, for the most part closed. Over the course of the past year (or more), direct support professionals re-defined their jobs without a road map, supporting social distancing, educating about the needs of personal protective equipment, dealing with issues pertaining to daily schedule changes, using new technology to build relationships, and of course, keeping people who are three times more likely to die from the COVID-19 virus, healthy and safe. As with all crises, they rose to the occasion and exceeded expectations. As we emerge from these dark days, how will the I/DD system, funders and policy makers recognize these “heroes”? What opportunities are there to finally address this decades-long workforce “crisis”? This session will provide reflection from the pandemic and solution-driven ideas to finally create the hallmarks of a meaningful career for our workforce.

Scheduling

The National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals (NADSP) will work with your organization on scheduling this keynote presentation at your conference. You are also able to bundle this presentation with other training options as breakout sessions, to maximize your resources and obtain the most cost-effective solution for your staff development needs. Please Contact NADSP to schedule this keynote presentation and discuss bundling options.