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DDS outlines statewide plan to recruit and train more direct support professionals
Summary
The Department of Developmental Services highlighted a new DSP job board (dspjobs.ct.gov), a multilingual marketing campaign and plans for standardized training and career pathways in response to a statewide staffing shortage. Officials said current vacancy and turnover rates are high and additional funding will support wages and retention.
Mary Pat DeCarlo, director of workforce strategies at the Department of Developmental Services, told the Council on Developmental Services on July 17 that the state is implementing a coordinated effort to recruit and retain direct support professionals.
DeCarlo said the state faces a longstanding staffing shortage: the most recent figure she cited put the full-time staff vacancy rate at about 17.7 percent and estimated that roughly 15 percent of new DSP hires leave within the first six months. She said there are an estimated more than 5,000 DSP openings in the state and that the nation will need about 1,500,000 direct care workers over the next decade as the population ages and lives longer.
To address the gap, DDS has developed a provider-focused job board, dspjobs.ct.gov, which DeCarlo said has more than 100 participating providers and roughly 270 postings. The board is intended to host "evergreen" listings for positions that are continuously needed, she said, and a provider survey will measure hiring activity and conversion from applicants to hires.
DeCarlo described a coordinated marketing campaign that included print, radio and television spots and materials in four languages to raise public awareness of DSP roles and drive applicants to the job board. "All of the pictures, the video, everything you saw in this campaign are actual individuals and staff," she said, noting the outreach was designed to avoid stock imagery and to reflect real workers.
The workforce strategy also emphasizes standardized job titles and core training so that entry-level hires obtain 85 percent of required baseline training before employers provide program-specific instruction. DeCarlo said that approach reduces the training burden on individual providers and supports career mobility among DSPs.
Council members asked whether the program will include specialized or autism-specific training and whether tiered career pathways (for example, DSP I/DSP II and specialty tracks) are planned. DeCarlo said the initial curriculum will be broad and that providers will handle deeper clinical training; she added that the department is pursuing the vision of tiered pathways that allow staff to progress to specialized roles and administrative positions.
DDS officials also noted that increased funding in the current budget is intended to support hourly wages and improve recruitment and retention. Kevin Bronson, DDS, said the department will survey providers to measure the campaign's effectiveness and will continue coordinating outreach across workforce boards and state programs.
The council did not take formal action on the presentation; staff said they will follow up with provider survey results and metrics on hires and retention.
