Work stress and burnout can impact the quality of support that DSPs provide. Hosts Mark Olson and Chet Tschetter talk about their own work experiences as DSPs and how they approach wellness from a personal perspective. They also provide an overview of what the podcast is and what they hope to cover in future episodes of the podcast.

Hello and welcome to the podcast

Wellness Matters for Direct Support.

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This is the podcast developed by the

University of Minnesota's Institute on

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Community Integration.

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Wellness matters for direct support

will focus on the importance of health,

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wellness and self-care. For

the direct support worker,

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my name is Chet Tschetter

and I'll be one of the hosts.

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And my name is Mark Olson,

and we'll be the co-host.

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Mark. Let me tell you a little bit

about my experience as a Direct Support

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Professional.

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I started my career working at a summer

camp for people who needed support,

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and I did that for about three summers

before becoming a Direct Support

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Professional full-time,

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I had the opportunity to support

people in their homes as well as

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through employment as a DSP.

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And I currently am one of the workforce

National Workforce Consultants at ICI

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and a part-Time Direct

Support Professional.

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Funny you should mention the

recreation content or contact.

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I began doing park and recreation

supports in direct support

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and moved into doing direct

support itself as a profession.

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My main focus was with vocational

supports, but during the years,

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as many of us do, I worked multiple jobs,

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so I worked in residential supports

as well as doing vocational

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supports. My career has

taken me many places.

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I have moved from doing

direct support specifically to

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doing advocacy work at one point,

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both individual and at the systems level.

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I was one of the founders of the

National Alliance for Direct Support

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Professionals and had the

John F. Kennedy Award,

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junior Award, the John F. Kennedy Jr.

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Award to share.

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I need to, I'm going to

start that bit over. Sure.

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I started my career in

the field of working at

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why am I having this issue. I

started working in park and just.

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Look at me and talk. We.

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Really,

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I started working in park and recreation

and then I found that I really loved

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working with people with disabilities.

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When I then moved on to

find a full-time job,

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I landed in direct support and did

vocational supports for probably

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about 15 years.

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I did some support of folks in

residential settings as well,

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because oftentimes people that are

providing direct support need to work

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multiple jobs just to make ends meet.

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That's true.

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And that's one of the

things about wellness that I

think we'll talk about over

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time is that many of us have

done that and that can affect our

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wellness. Now, I have also worked

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in advocacy,

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both in individual advocacy and at systems

advocacy where we were trying to make

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change in supporting self-advocacy

and self-advocates to affect the

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changes that they wanted to have in

the systems that provide for them.

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Currently, I work as

a curriculum designer,

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a trainer in person-centered practices,

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engagement and wellness at the University

of Minnesota Institute on Community

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Integration. And

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that is kind of where

I'm at at the moment.

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Fantastic. You've really had

some great work experience.

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As have you.

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Thank you. So Mark, what

does wellness mean to you?

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Wellness to me is really

about a balanced life.

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Making sure that I'm getting what's

important to me done so that I feel

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comfortable, I feel safe,

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I feel like I'm doing

things that matter to me.

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It involves that little bit

of safety and whatnot too,

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but that safety piece for me

doesn't need to be the lead.

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It needs to be about the things that

are meaningful to me. Case in point,

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I had a health issue about

15 years ago. Afterwards,

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I really focused on my wellness more

and began doing theater and some other

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things to make sure that I was

getting that balance in my life.

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So balance is kind of the key to

me. What about your wellness stuff?

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Well,

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I'll be honest to say that I really didn't

have a balance and didn't think about

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my wellness early in my career at all.

I was just about work, work, work, work,

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work. And so I didn't

really take care of myself.

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And it wasn't until some life-changing

situations occurred in my life

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about seven years ago,

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and I decided that was the time I

really needed to make some changes.

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And so looking for that balance

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with not only work-life balance,

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but just taking care of myself and my

body and really thinking about what I'm

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eating and what I'm doing for

activities as well as what I was doing

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for myself spiritually and mentally

to really get everything in balance.

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And I even sat down and wrote my,

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oh, I can't remember

the name of it right now

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isn't just my goals,

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but what's my story and what are all those

different compartments of what I want

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accomplish in my life and how

do I find balance within that?

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And that really kind of helped me focus.

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And I know that through doing

that, finding those balances,

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people around me started noticing

that it wasn't just how my body was

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changing because I was losing some

weight and those sorts of things,

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but they were noticing how that was

changing also in my personality,

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and I wasn't as stressed

out as I used to be.

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Well, in that case, in point there, Chet,

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I think about what

happens around our office.

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And one of the things that shows me that

you've embraced that philosophy is how

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you've taken the concept of if I

want to feel good about myself,

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if I want to do something that

is going to make me feel like I'm

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getting balanced in life, I'm going

to make sure others around me are.

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So your little habit of dropping little

notes to a lot of folks around in our

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little cube farm is a wonderful thing.

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It always makes my day when I walk in one

morning and there's a little note from

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Chet, not with their name

on it, just a little note,

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but I kind of figured it

out. That kind of just says,

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you're a great person or you

matter, you mean something.

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Those types of things just really are a

benefit to anybody's wellness when you

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do something for someone

else, but not out of

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needing to do it to get your paycheck,

but just doing it because it's human.

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And I care about the people I work around.

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I care a lot about the

people that I work with.

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And yes, to both work around, work with

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and care about people in general

is kind of a part of wellness.

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That's been one of my things is I

will go out and if I'm just in the

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community,

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I will make the comment about

somebody in the grocery store.

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I will just make a comment to them about,

have a nice day, or How are you doing?

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Or if they are struggling, I'll say, how

are you doing? And then when they say,

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I'm not doing, or they'll say I'm

great. I'm like, how are you doing?

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And sometimes they will find somebody

that will open up a little bit.

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And just the fact that

somebody has shown an interest,

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somebody has shown that, Hey,

your wellness matters to me,

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is important to them, and

it makes their day better.

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Absolutely.

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I also think that for Direct Support

Professionals who these days are working,

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many are working fairly

isolated to really think about

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what is it that they

need for themselves to

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continue to do their job well?

Because if you don't take the time,

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as I was saying earlier in my career,

I didn't take the time to do that.

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I didn't take the time to look for

relationships that really nourished me.

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I was just working. That was my main

thing, and that was my area of comfort.

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But as I was able to make those

changes and look for relationships,

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it also changed me. It

made me a happier person.

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I had more people around me

to kind of check and balance,

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and it was really helpful to be able,

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and I would really encourage Direct

Support Professionals to look for

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that opportunity for balancing their life.

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And when we talk about that,

I think about how I've,

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I've stayed connected to the field

of disability my entire career

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because as I've gone through it,

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I've periodically reinvented

myself within the career.

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And that reinvention is also a

form of wellness because I've taken

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what I've learned and I've moved

to the next step as far as,

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here's where I want to spend my time,

here's where I want to spend my energy,

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here's how I want to support.

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And so initially I hadn't

realized that's what I was doing.

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A lot of times wellness. We

don't always realize that, Hey,

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I just did that for my own wellness.

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But that intentionality of being and

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focusing on finding those things

that help you do your wellness

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is really what we want to

make this podcast about.

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Absolutely. Thanks, Mark. Yep.

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Mark, even today, we've used

a couple different terms.

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We've used Direct Support Professionals.

We've used direct support workers.

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Who are we really talking about here?

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Well, okay,

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I can touch on this specifically from

when we'd founded the National Alliance

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for Direct Support Professionals,

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and that we went over that

term multiple times with

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everybody at the table. And at the table.

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We had folks who lived

with lived experience,

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so folks who were living

with disabilities.

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We had a group of us that were Direct

Support Professionals. We had academics,

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we had people from the industry as

far as leadership of organizations.

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And we landed on that in the end.

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And there was some concern about

Direct Support Professional because

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get this,

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people who receive supports oftentimes

don't want another professional

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in their life because the professionals

they have oftentimes don't give them the

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time of day.

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And so we had to really tease out the

fact that this would be a different type

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of professional,

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that the concept of Direct Support

Professional was to increase the quality

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of support to the person

providing you that support.

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And the people we had at

the table understood that

concept after we had a good

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conversation. Now that said,

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it encompasses people that are

considered direct support workers,

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someone that's providing

personal cares in a home,

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someone that's providing

almost any type of support

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service to someone with a

disability or someone who is aging

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is a Direct Support Professional,

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but it may not be the term

that's used where they're

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working.

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Right in that particular industry.

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So I could be caring for someone in

my family and being paid for that,

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and I might consider myself a direct

support worker versus a Direct Support

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Professional.

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That's a consumer. There are

many times of funding out there,

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and so there's consumer related

grants and different types of funding

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streams where family members

are working as the direct

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support person,

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and that is another one.

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So it's just realize that when we use

those terms kind of interchangeably,

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it does mean the whole,

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it means everybody that provides

that care to an individual,

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that support to an individual to

live the life that they want to live.

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And that can go from,

sorry, I hit the mic.

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That can go from infancy

to a person's passing.

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It's all a part of the human

condition and the fact that we

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need to support each individual

in a way that works for them.

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Right. Thank you.

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One other thing, Chet, I'm

going to ask you a question now.

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When we talk about Direct Support

Professionals and people who are providing

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direct support, and we

talk about that life,

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that we are supporting a person to

live the life that they want to live,

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sometimes we do that at the expense

of ourselves and that can affect our

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wellness.

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Have you worked at places or have you

worked with people who are really good at

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supporting you?

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Are there things that you

see in the industry that you

feel would better support

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that frontline worker or that

frontline supervisor to be able to,

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shall I say, to be able to provide

better support to the person because

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they're feeling more supported?

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So it sounds like how to advocate

for yourself so that you can do a

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good job when you do

show up for your shift.

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Absolutely.

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Absolutely. Yeah.

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One of the things I notice is maybe

a little bit more generationally,

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I started direct support,

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doing direct support work back in

the mid eighties, shall we say.

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And so I come from.

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Early eighties. For me.

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I come from that generation of,

you go to work, you do your job,

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you keep your head down

and you don't say anything.

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But I think that's different

today. And people will,

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especially the millennial

generation, they're willing to say,

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I'm not willing to do all that.

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I'd like to do my job because it's

important and because of the mission,

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but I also need a balance in my life.

And so that's one thing I appreciate.

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That's one thing I really

appreciate about people today,

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and I've learned from

that. I've grown from that,

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that I've willing to ask for

myself where in the past I

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probably wouldn't have. How about you?

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Well, that intergenerational

thing that sings to me as well,

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because I've learned a lot from

younger Direct Support Professionals

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or direct support workers,

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and I'm hopeful that they've

learned some things from me as well.

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And I think that that's

another open dialogue piece

that can help everybody with

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their wellness.

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Because if you're learning from

each other and you are trying to,

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I struggle with the balance because

partially generational, partially for me,

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because hey, gender is a thing

that can also come into play here.

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As the male, the first

male in the family, boy,

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I was expected to be the go-getter. Well,

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maybe that's not my personality,

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but I went and that was a

persona I kept trying to do,

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and I spent a lot of time doing

that and working, working, working,

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and not taking care of my

own personal health needs.

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So I like that about folks.

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Even some Gen Xers I've

met have done that.

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And I dunno why generational theory

came in, but we'll go with it.

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Generational pieces can be a

really good way of starting the

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conversation. Other things, it's like,

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did you work in any organizations that

were supportive of you or not supportive?

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I mean,

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that's another thing that oftentimes

you run into the ones that are maybe not

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quite as supportive as you'd like.

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Well, I don't know if I could

say too much on that Mark,

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but having worked for more

than one provider, yes,

there really is a difference.

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I worked with one provider that was very,

the organization was run by a family,

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and as a staff person,

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you were brought into their family and

they really cared about you as a person.

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I'm still in touch with them,

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even though I haven't worked

for them for probably 25 years.

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But I could go back there today

and just, they would still care.

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They do still care about me as a person.

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And so that really does make

a difference. How about you?

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What's been your experience? Well.

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It's varied.

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I've had a couple of situations where

it's been a little bit like that,

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but I've also had the experience of

working for a very large organization

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that maybe didn't have that family focus,

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but what they offered was the

support in really solid vacation

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time that I could take, and they

actually wanted me to take it,

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which a lot of times,

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especially since Covid hit

isn't happening as much because

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there's such a shortage of

people, the provide supports,

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there was that vacation to take.

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There were some other benefits that

they had that I was able to access

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that many times today aren't accessible

in the field at the level that they

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should be.

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So that was a wellness component that

you sometimes don't look at because it's

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a behind the scenes what

sometimes is called a total

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compensation piece,

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and that there's vacation time

and sick time or PTO as many

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use. And there's maybe

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some programs that you can tap into

if you're having some struggles.

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EAPs, I think they're called,

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and just ways of getting

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support. So the larger organization had

its wins, but it had its weaknesses,

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as I'm sure the small ones do too.

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Absolutely.

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One of the things I'm really looking

forward to in this podcast as we keep

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moving on is that we're going to be able

to start talking about those strategies

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and talk with some experts that are going

to be able to give us some resources

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and just have a nice conversation with

them about some suggestions and tips that

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they have for direct support workers.

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Now, Chet,

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I want to ask you to do one thing

because I see you have the paper there.

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I would like,

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we did this survey a while back

in collaboration with a couple of

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organizations.

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One of 'em was the National Alliance

for Direct Support Professionals,

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and this survey was of direct

support folks across the nation,

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and it was really about

how they were coping with

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the Covid pandemic because frankly,

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people were getting hit very

hard by the Covid pandemic.

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So I would love it if you would

pick one statistic off of that

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today and with the podcast,

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we can certainly give people access

to the report that I think that that's

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something we can just give because

it's one of our products out of ICI.

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But I would love to have you just

one statistic that stuck out to you.

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Right. Thanks, Mark.

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We started the podcast talking

about work-life balance.

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And so the one that I'm

going to talk about is,

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and this is from the two year

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COVID-19 survey that we did here

at the University of Minnesota's

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Institute on Community

Integration. And the question was,

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when respondents were asked to gauge

the quality of their life work balance

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compared to the beginning of the pandemic,

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36% said it was worse,

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and 11% said it was, I'm

going to say that again.

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A total of 47% said that their

work-life balance was worse since the

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pandemic. And that's incredible.

It was probably bad to start with.

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I shouldn't say that.

That's not necessarily true.

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It may not necessarily be true,

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but there's probably just a

kernel of truth to it, at least.

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I don't have the stats soldered to the

data on it, but there probably is some,

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absolutely. A few said it was better,

like about 20% said it was better,

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but the majority thought, yeah,

it's worse than it used to be.

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And when we looked at the data that showed

that staff members were picking up a

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lot of extra shifts, and we know that

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through stories that there were some

staff members who spent weeks staying

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at a residence of someone

when they had covid

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and not going home at all.

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That life work balance really

got messed up at that point.

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Okay. Well, thank you for that.

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And I think that we've probably

used up our time for today.

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So I'm going to take us out,

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and I would just like to remind

folks that we are accessible.

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If you go to ICI dot UMN or just

put that in a search engine,

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you can find the center that

is putting this together for

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us that we're working with,

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and you could find us there.

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But then we have a lot of great topics

lined up and look forward to talking

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with you again.

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If you have ideas for topics

you would like us to discuss,

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send an email to DSP

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wellness@umn.edu. Once again,

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DSP wellness@umn.edu,

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and join us next time. When we talk about

wellness and what it means for DSPs,

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the daily demands of being a direct

support person can often lead to stress

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and burnout. And when A DSP is stressed,

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they're likely to make errors.

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Errors that can be costly not only

to the organization that you work

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for, but to the person

you support and to you.

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Join us, Mark Olson and.

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Chet Tschetter.

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As we bring you new podcasts

that dive into how self-care for

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DSPs is important.

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You can download and listen to Wellness

Matters for Direct Support wherever you

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get your podcasts.

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This podcast is produced by the University

of Minnesota's Institute on Community

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Integration,

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and it is by and for Direct Support

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Professionals. Chet, do you have

anything else that you would like to add?

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Well, thank you, Mark.

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This has just been a really fun

conversation and I can't wait for our next

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editions of Frontline Initiative.

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I can't wait for our next podcast.

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We hope that you'll come back and join

us at Wellness Matters for Direct Support

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because it really does. Thank you.

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Thank you.