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Committee Recommendation: The Arc of Minnesota Position Statements Task Force recommends that this revised position statement be renewed in 2002.
Issue: Well-trained staff play a crucial role in providing supports to enhance the quality of life for people who have developmental disabilities and their family members. Due to changing demographics, and reimbursement rates that have not kept pace with inflation, providers of support services are faced with a shortfall of properly educated and well-trained staff members. Increased diversity among direct care professionals is a positive development, but it may also increase the need to ensure that effective communication is possible between staff, the persons being served, and their families. These factors, coupled with the difficulty of providing appropriate compensation and benefits, have also led to a very high turnover rate among many provider organizations.
Position: People with developmental disabilities are entitled to live, learn, work, and play in the community. This requires a sufficient, caring, stable, competent, qualified, and well-compensated workforce. Staff need to be effectively trained in skills essential to meet the needs and promote continued development of every individual.
Dedicated people should be recruited, trained, and retained in order to create and provide consistent supports responsive to the needs of the individual(s) served. Incentives in the form of appropriate compensation, health care and retirement benefits, training, and career ladders should be developed in order to minimize staff turnover. High staff turnover can be very disruptive and negatively impact programs serving persons with intellectual and related developmental disabilities, as well as increasing training costs. Assignments of staff should be in a manner that will eliminate unnecessary transfers and resulting disruptions of the continuity of supports provided to individuals and their families.
All staff, including direct care, professional, paraprofessional, supervisory, and administrative, must receive pre-service and/or in-service training in the area of developmental disabilities. The goal of this training should be to impart the skills and attitudes needed for the staff to ensure appropriate services; provide the recognition that staff are employed in a valued field; and protect individuals with developmental disabilities from traumatic changes in the environment and from abuse and neglect. Where appropriate, family members, volunteers and others providing natural supports should be included in such training, particularly those who are using Consumer Directed Community Supports and other consumer directed services.
The Arc of Minnesota believes that staff recruitment, development, and retention are essential to achieve tangible outcomes for people with developmental disabilities and their families. Comprehensive, on-going development is mandatory. The Arc of Minnesota calls on the state's community and technical colleges, other institutions of higher education, businesses, and government agencies to work with providers, parents, and advocacy organizations to recruit, train, and retain competent staff to serve people with developmental disabilities and their families. Developing, funding and implementing the Direct Care Professionals Training Initiative is imperative to ensuring that there are enough well-trained and qualified people providing support services.
These principles apply to all people with developmental disabilities, regardless of where they live.
This recommendation was approved by the delegate body at The Arc of Minnesota's Annual Meeting on September 21, 2002.
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