This webinar is both a celebration of direct support professionals and a call to action for New York Alliance members to raise the bar that goes beyond the recognition that is bestowed during DSP Week. Click Here to Watch the Recorded Presentation

Joseph M. Macbeth, Executive Director of the National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals (NADSP) shared some historical information on workforce development activities, practical solutions to some of the workforce challenges that provider agencies can implement and other ways to engage direct support professionals in understanding public policy. We began to answer the following questions that appeared in a recent blog posting on the NADSP website .  

Do direct support professionals understand that they are part of the fastest growing occupation in the country?

Do direct support professionals have a true understanding of their role as the key lynchpin to quality?

Do direct support professionals have a world view that sees the bigger picture as a social justice issue?

Do direct support professionals understand healthcare financing and how the money they earn comes from Medicaid and when they spend their paychecks they are reinvesting that Medicaid money back into the local economy?

Do we share public policy initiatives with, and engage, direct support professionals to take action?

Do we invest in their future with high quality professional development activities?

Are direct support professionals aware that they are providing complex skills in multi-disciplinary domains that require sound decision making ability and rooted in a code of professional ethics?

About Joseph M. Macbeth, NADSP Executive Director

Joseph M. Macbeth has worked in the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities for 35 years - beginning as a Direct Support Professional. Macbeth is recognized as a national leader in the advocacy & movement to recognize direct support as a profession and is a highly sought after speaker on the workforce challenges that affect the disability system. Macbeth has co-authored the Report to the President: America’s Direct Support Workforce Crisis: Effects on People with Intellectual Disabilities, Families, Communities and the U.S. Economy for the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities (PCPID, 2017), he was the Issue Editor for Impact: The Direct Support Workforce and People with Intellectual, Developmental, and Other Disabilities (University of Minnesota, 2018) and produced an award winning Realistic Job Preview titled  "Working as a Direct Support Professional: We Get It Done" (NYSACRA 2011). While working in New York, Macbeth partnered with the State University of New York (SUNY) by assisting more than 500 direct support professionals advance their college education through the "Disability Studies Certificate". He currently sits on the board of directors for The Council on Quality and Leadership (CQL), The Learning Community for Person Centered Practices (TLCPCP) and the College of Direct Support's National Advisory Board. In 2016, Macbeth was appointed by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo as a Member of the Advisory Council for the New York State Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs. He lives in Albany, NY.

This webinar is provided by the New York Alliance and NADSP in support of DSP Recognition Week September 9-15, 2018.