How Covid-19 is Impacting the Lives of Direct Support Staff
With Covid-19 cases on the rise, many people are affected, including direct support staff for people with various disabilities. There are different types of direct support staff, ranging from personal support workers to instructor therapists.
Not all direct support workers are considered essential workers. In Ontario, many of these workers that are considered non-essential workers have been laid off or even lost their jobs due to workplace closures.
In a big city such as Toronto, Covid-19 has made it difficult for small businesses to keep their doors open, including private childcares and therapy centres that provide services for people with disabilities. Due to current circumstances, private instructor therapists have been seeing a decline in the number of hours that they can work and in the number of clients that they can see.
On average, an entry level instructor therapist in Toronto earns only $27,000/year. The poverty line in Ontario falls at $19,000 for a single individual or $28,000 for a single parent with one child (Poverty Free Ontario, 2020). An instructor therapist makes a median $50,000/year after working in the field for a number of years. Since many instructor therapists are paid hourly wages and treated as sole proprietors, they do not receive sick days, vacation pay, or insurance benefits. Many organizations do not pay instructor therapists if a client cancels sessions. Due to all the factors listed above, the salary of an instructor therapist varies greatly. It has been increasingly difficult for instructor therapists to remain afloat during the pandemic, however assistance through Employment Insurance and Canada Emergency Response Benefit have greatly helped.
Many instructor therapists have been looking to change their field of work post-pandemic due to the volatility of this profession. This could lead to a decrease in educated and trained professionals and a lack of therapy spaces. Although this is the life for instructor therapists working in private centers, instructor therapists working in government-funded organizations have had better luck.
Government-funded organizations seem to have found a way to give access to families by reverting to Telehealth services and providing therapy through mediums such as Zoom. Telehealth is a great option for individuals with disabilities that are higher functioning. For example, a 6 year old child with autism that has a hard time sitting still and wants to be moving around will not be an ideal candidate for Telehealth. However, a 6 year old child that is able to sit for periods of fifteen minutes or above can benefit from Telehealth. It may pose as a challenge for individuals that are below 5 years of age, unable to sit for 5 minutes or more, or children that are not able to pay attention to a screen. Overall, Telehealth is a great way to help children and their families during this time, where the alternative would be not receiving therapy.
Other organizations have been using Telehealth to conduct parent-training which teaches them how to best help their child. Parent-training is a great tool and can help families become closer and work together in an appropriate manner. Telehealth can help parents learn how to teach their children a variety of different skills.
Instructor therapists in group homes or those working with adults with disabilities in a more intensive environment are being asked to work overtime. They are not being given supports or personal protective equipment. They’re increasingly worried about their health and if they are taking the virus back to their families.
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It will be interesting to see the skills that children with autism will have gained over the period of this quarantine and how many instructor therapists stay in the field post-pandemic. Will Telehealth be continually used post-pandemic? Will parent-training have greater focus post-pandemic? Will instructor therapists working in more intensive environments be safe and healthy to work during and after the pandemic?
Unfortunately, we won’t be able to answer these questions until the pandemic has subsided. However the direct support professionals will be happy to go back to work or keep working and provide their services to vulnerable populations.
