They Care for Others, But What About Themselves? Understanding Self-Care Among DSPs' and Its Relationship to Professional Quality of Life.
Simple self-care habits give DSPs immediate relief from burnout and trauma stress.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Heald et al. (2020) sent an online survey to Direct Support Professionals. They asked how often staff use self-care and how they rate their own resilience.
The survey also measured professional quality of life: job satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress.
What they found
DSPs who scored high on self-care and resilience felt more satisfied and less burned out.
The same staff also reported lower secondary traumatic stress, the kind that comes from helping clients through trauma.
How this fits with other research
Gandhi et al. (2022) extends the picture. Their survey shows 12% of DSPs already meet PTSD-level criteria for secondary traumatic stress. Heald et al. (2020) now gives a tool: self-care may buffer that trauma load.
Anderson et al. (2025) extends again. During COVID-19, DSPs reported worse mental health than frontline supervisors. The self-care habits praised in Heald et al. (2020) became even more urgent.
Pettingell et al. (2022) seems to contradict at first glance. They found higher wages, not self-care, keep staff from quitting. The two studies actually tackle different levers: one fixes burnout, the other fixes turnover. Use both.
Why it matters
You can’t wait for agencies to raise wages overnight. You can start micro-breaks, peer debriefs, and quick resilience check-ins today. These low-cost moves cut burnout and may keep DSPs at the bedside until the bigger paycheck arrives.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Direct support professionals (DSPs) are instrumental to the daily operations of organizations that support people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). With extensive responsibilities, DSPs often experience high levels of stress and burnout that can result in turnover and vacant positions. Self-care is the practice of behaviors that promote well-being, counter work-related stress, and foster resilience. The current study explored self-care and resilience, and their relationship with professional quality of life (i.e., satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress) among DSPs. Using a convenient sample, 153 DSPs (71% female) completed an online survey comprised of multiple measures. Results indicated that DSPs often engaged in self-care behaviors across physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual, relational, and workplace domains, however, less than 40% engaged in self-care behaviors directly related to work. On average, DSPs reported high levels of resilience. Collectively, self-care and resilience accounted for 12% to 28% of variance in DSPs' professional quality of life. Given the contribution of self-care to resilience and professional quality of life, an active approach by IDD organizations to foster self-care among DSPs may help promote their longevity and retention.
Intellectual and developmental disabilities, 2020 · doi:10.1352/1934-9556-58.3.221