Barriers to Teaching Life Skills to Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) in Residential Group Homes: Perspectives from Direct Support Professionals

Presenter

Janell Aspasia Torrey

Campus

UMass Amherst

Sponsor

Ashley Woodman, Department of Psychology, UMass Amherst

Schedule

Session 5, 3:30 PM - 4:15 PM [Schedule by Time][Poster Grid for Time/Location]

Location

Poster Board A86, Campus Center Auditorium, Row 5 (A81-A100) [Poster Location Map]

Abstract

Stakeholders in the intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) community commonly describe turning 22 years old as “falling off the edge of a cliff” as adults with IDD lose access to many of the services and skilled therapies that they received during childhood and adolescence. The purpose of the present study was to solicit feedback from residential Direct Support Professionals (DSPs) who work in 24-hour group homes in Massachusetts providing support to adults with IDD to assess the current strategies, systems, and service gaps that surround adult life skill coaching in the group home setting. Up to 50 residential DSPs will be recruited to participate in a paid online survey, and a subset of survey respondents will be invited to participate in a semi-structured interview over Zoom. Participants’ survey and interview responses will be jointly examined to assess whether the following factors act as barriers to teaching life skills: (1) understaffing of DSPs; (2) DSPs' lack of training in evidence-based practices for teaching life skills; (3) emotional burnout of DSPs due to long shift hours and high level of responsibility; (4) inconsistent data collection monitoring consumers' goal progress; (5) lack of effective, easy-to-use technology for capturing data on goal progress; and (6) disconnect between consumers’ established Individual Support Plan (ISP) goals and consumers’ personal priorities. Participant feedback will be used to develop a list of organization-level and state-level recommendations which could enhance the quality of life skill coaching to adults with IDD in the 24-hour group home setting.

Keywords

intellectual and developmental disabilties (IDD), human services, life skills, direct support professional (DSP), Individual Support Plan (ISP)

Research Area

Psychology and Behavioral Sciences

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