Prevalence of Secondary Traumatic Stress Among Direct Support Professionals in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Field.
One in eight DSPs meet PTSD criteria from client trauma, and higher trauma caseloads make it worse.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team sent a survey to Direct Support Professionals who work with people with intellectual or developmental disabilities.
They asked how often staff felt jumpy, numb, or haunted by the tough stories they hear on the job.
The goal was to see how many reach PTSD-level stress from helping traumatized clients.
What they found
About one in every eight DSPs scored high enough to meet PTSD criteria for secondary traumatic stress.
Staff who served more traumatized clients reported stronger STS symptoms than those with lighter caseloads.
How this fits with other research
Heald et al. (2020) extends these numbers by showing the flip side: DSPs who take micro-breaks and talk with peers feel less STS and more job satisfaction.
Anderson et al. (2025) adds COVID-19 as a new stress layer, finding supervisors felt more supported than frontline staff during the pandemic.
Pettingell et al. (2022) shows low wages push DSPs out; chronic understaffing could make the STS problem worse, not better.
Why it matters
You now know trauma is not just a client issue—it spills onto staff. Check your team for hyper-vigilance, sleep trouble, or call-outs after tough cases. Build in five-minute debriefs, peer huddles, and push for fair pay. These small moves can cut the 12 % PTSD risk and keep your best DSPs at work.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Direct support professionals (DSPs) are deemed by existing literature as vital support to persons with intellectual or developmental disabilities (IDD). They may be exposed to the traumatic experiences of people with IDD with potential psychological implications. Secondary traumatic stress (STS) has been studied among related professionals across human services, but little is known among DSPs. The current study examines the prevalence of STS in a sample of DSPs. The results suggested that DSPs are exposed to traumatic experiences, and exposure to a greater number of traumatized clients is significantly correlated with symptoms of STS. At least 12.4% of DSPs in this sample met the diagnostic criteria for experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Also, results suggest STS differences in DSPs based on demographics.
Intellectual and developmental disabilities, 2022 · doi:10.1352/1934-9556-60.4.273