A Day in the life of a DSP at CES

Direct Service Professionals are the backbone of our service to adults with disabilities.

Dani Pevy (left) has been a DSP for about a year after a lifetime of bartending. She loves hanging around with Karla and other clients at the Jackson CES day-habilitation center.

Direct Service Professionals are the backbone of everything CES does for our clients who are adults, ages 18 to 80+ with intellectual or developmental disabilities or acquired brain injuries.

Most work in 10 to 12 hour shifts, 4 days (or nights) a week with a few serving as part time or on-call specialists.

Dani Pevy has been a DSP for about a year after a lifetime working as a bartender for hotels in Jackson and Mexico. She loves hanging around with clients during the weeknights and on Saturdays. Her speciality has been to get the clients into the community on picnics, visits to the zoo, national parks, or to go skiing or watch hockey.

Day shift 8am to 8pm

The typical day time schedule runs from 8am to 8pm and involves meeting the clients at their group home or apartment, helping them with breakfast, transporting them to day-habilitation or to various appointments in town to see doctors, or sight see or - depending on the particular client - drop them off at work.

Day-habilitation schedules include time learning life skills like simple cooking, cleanup, maintainance, or educational skills like reading and writing, art and exercise. Clients are actively engaged in conversation or interactive skills throughout the day so they stay active mentally and socially.

Clients are encouraged to exercise, read books and go on short walks. DSPs help facilitate, guide and lead these excursions to ensure everyone's safety.

Lunch is served around noon - with some clients helping DSPs prepare and serve the food. Then they assist in cleaning up and moving into afternoon routines that include exercise, reading or game time, walks or hobbies like sewing or knitting.

Around 3pm DSPs help wrap up the various activities and then prepare the clients to return to their respective homes or apartments and then drive them there via customized vehicles.

Customized minivans, full vans or buses help us move wheelchair bound clients safely from home to day-habilitation and back.

Once clients return home, DSPs help prepare for dinner, and the switch over for the night shift DSPs who arrive to ensure clients are safe overnight.

Direct Service Professionals role is essential for helping clients continue to learn life skills, exercise, and interact with their peers in a safe, friendly and healthy way. The general "vibe" is joyful with individualized plans to keep boredom or loneliness away through regular hands-on activities with their peers.

Greg, another DSP from Jackson sums up his experience as a Direct Service Professional "There are a lot of layers with each client's particular condition but they're generally cheerful and easy to be around. I enjoy coming to work each day to help them grow and learn basic skills. The sense of accomplishment when they master some new habit really hits home."

https://www.ces-usa.org/jackson

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