TLDR: Worked at a residential facility for adults with developmental disabilities; staff is overworked and underpaid…and residents suffer because of it.
I recently switched jobs, non-profit/catholic/residential facility to hospital, and now I'm experiencing moments of seething anger every time I realize what a functional workplace looks like. Let me be clear: a corporate-esque hospital environment is still bullshit, but at least I'm not destitute anymore. Until recently, I genuinely believed it was impossible for them to pay a living wage…or that their circumstances excused it.
I was a social worker/QIDP /QMRP who worked with the developmental disability population for about 8 years. I have a Master's degree in social work, and when I left the company I was making 48,000 in a big, expensive city. For context, rent in that area is about 2k for a one-bedroom. The BIGGEST lie that I was told: we wish we could pay you more, but we have to fund-raise 20 million dollars a year just to provide our residents with this level of care. The state pays a fraction of the cost, and you will be making more money here than at any other facility.
I kept telling myself that if I wanted to work with this population, I had to grind it out for a few years in order to make a living wage…which is hilarious. The people who do direct care (DSPs…like a CNA) start out around 18 dollars an hour. These workers are wiping butts,, cleaning up puke, doing two-person transfers from FLOOR mats, restraining residents with behaviors, and being hit. When small/short women or pregnant women express concern about having to transfer men twice their size (or get punched by them), management basically says they're being lazy (not to their face, but to other leadership).
The moment I realized I needed to get the hell out of there was when I had a very distressing incident in which I had noticed staff verbally abusing a resident and restricting her rights on a regular basis, and my director's response was to get me and the staff in a room to “hash it out.” My director and their shift supervisor were both there, along with around 15 DSPs. The DSPs started off by saying I can't just throw around words like “abusive” because that could get someone in trouble. And then for the next hour and a half both the supervisor and director were completely silent while I was aggressively berated by the staff I was supposed to be supervising. I was working 60 hours a week and struggling to support myself at the time, so I had a bit of a mental breakdown after that.
Of course, this company is in the middle of a “staffing crisis” right now. The reality is, they've been short staffed since 2018, when they expanded the number of residences on campus. It took me eight years to realize that if you are unable to adequately staff your residential facility for 4 years, YOU ARE NOT EQUIPPED TO TAKE CARE OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES. This is literally the most vulnerable population in this country, and this facility is basically doing the least they can. This facility has a TEN YEAR LONG wait list, but people who drop a million dollars or buy a building can get their kid in in about 2 years (and even then…it's no guarantee). You can't have billionaires moving cross country and throwing money at you to utilize your services, and then turn around and say there's no money for staff. As a wait list coordiantor, I routinely listened to wealthy moms BEGGING me to help them give us millions of dollars just to secure a spot for their kid. “Sorry, our Wait List has been put on hold because of the staffing crisis.”
This is already too long. My apologies. But if you live in the midwest and are trying to get your adult child in a similar residential facility, feel free to message me with questions. If my experience here could provide anyone with any insight, I would be happy to help.