Do Your DSPs Have the Skills and Motivation They Need?

Direct support is a challenging profession. As such, direct support professional skills training is key to providing quality care. To provide effective care to persons served, DSPs need soft skills, like empathy and communication, and technical skills related to the care they provide. Knowing what skills DSPs in your organization need, and how to give them the best training possible, will allow hire, train, and retain the best direct support professionals.

5 key direct support professional skills

1. Effective communication

Communication is a crucial skill for direct support professionals across every environment they work in. When meeting with supervisors or colleagues, a DSP must know how to effectively discuss the work they are performing with their clients. This communication can take many forms, from discussing technical skills they use in their support work to the results they see from their clients, and more.

DSPs must also know who to effectively communicate with their clients and their clients’ caregivers (if applicable). This type of communication requires translating any jargon from the direct support field into everyday language. This way, clients and their caregivers can stay informed and be better able to steer the direction of their own care.

2. Empathy and compassion

Compassion is when you understand and share the feelings and experiences of others, and it leads to a desire to help them. Compassion plays an important and valuable role in providing quality direct support services. When you show compassion towards the people you support, you are improving their lives every day by:

• Allowing their voices to be heard
• Showing them that they are our equals
• Allowing them to have the same opportunities as everyone else
• Providing them with the same dignity and respect that every person deserves

As a DSP, your attitude and outlook on things directly impacts those of the people you support. It is important to keep a positive mindset when providing support to the people you serve, especially in times of uncertainty or hardship.

3. Flexibility and adaptability

Not only are DSPs expected to adjust to new activities and environments, but the moods and actions of the people they support will fluctuate. Adaptability helps you respond to these changes and fluctuations, as well as to new challenges, situations, roles, and needs.

A day in the life of a DSP is never the same. There will be times when you face a situation or challenge that cannot be solved with conventional methods. In times like these, flexibility is key. You might have to think creatively to help a person reach their goals.

4. Knowledge and critical thinking

Knowledge is powerful, but information changes constantly. The more knowledge you have, the better you can support the people you serve. DSPs should commit to increasing independence and capability in others by sharing what they know and teaching the people they support.

This will directly contribute to their growth and independence. It also provides them with the knowledge they need to make decisions and advocate for their wants and needs. This is known as informed decision-making.

5. Patience and understanding

The role of a DSP is one of great reward, but that is not to say it doesn’t come with its challenges. You will encounter situations that require a great deal of patience and understanding. A strong sense of the two is important to the success of the people you support.

A person’s behavior may determine the pace or progress of certain tasks, skills, and goals. Keeping calm and persisting through these difficult times is essential to the success of the people you support.

Recognizing and understanding a person’s strengths and areas of improvement can help set expectations when it comes to mastering skills or participating in the local community. It can also prepare you for long days and unforeseen challenges.

How to provide direct support professional skills training

Providing your direct support professionals with continuing education and skills training is essential to your organization’s success. Better training practices empower your organization to provide better care to persons served and create a more stable and satisfied DSP workforce.

Building out these training plans, however, can feel like a daunting task. In this section, we will detail how to create easy-to-execute training plans for your DSPs using effective adult learning theory techniques. These techniques will help learners become and remain engaged in their training, while simultaneously improving their retention of the information presented.

Story-based learning

Story-based learning courses employ short vignettes and scenarios that let the learner make real-life decisions in situations they’re likely to face in their day-to-day jobs. Simple strategies put the learner “at risk” or use gamification to engage learners more fully in core content.

By employing this technique during training courses, it’s possible for direct support professionals to practice the skills they’re learning in a safe, low-risk environment. This will allow them to build confidence in their skillset prior to using these techniques in the field, leading to an increased level of care and better-quality outcomes for your organization.

Feedback delivers instructive content

Providing feedback to learners goes beyond “Correct” or “Try again.” Learner responses create a springboard to additional information, or how their choices play out in realistic terms. Be sure to provide helpful, thoughtful feedback during direct support professional training sessions.

Engaging content

Emotionally engaging courses reinforce the connection between the learner and the content, making the material relevant and meaningful — a powerful motivator for adult learners.

In addition, visually engaging designs that use visual cues and infographics can make content easy to understand, while purposeful image selection can help learners relate the material to real-world subjects and situations.

Put your DSP skills training into action

Have you taken the necessary steps to build on the competency and skill development of your direct support professionals? Do you have a training curriculum that is specifically built around what motivates your DSPs and ensures they have the skills they need?
Learn how Relias can help with DSP training, job satisfaction, and more.