What does a direct care staffer do?
A Direct Care Staffer specializes in providing personal care and supervision to the disabled or elderly. Among the responsibilities include administering medication, managing schedules, assisting in hygienic tasks, preparing meals, and doing light to moderate household chores. Furthermore, A Direct Care Staffer also helps in transportation and preparation of daily meals, running various errands, purchasing groceries and daily necessities, and as well as monitoring health conditions. It is also essential for a Daily Care Staffer to update supervisors and guardians regularly.
Direct care staffer responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real direct care staffer resumes:
- Provide and care for highly volatile patients, administering CPI when require.
- Train and supervise individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities.
- Assist consumers in development and maintenance of adaptive daily living skills.
- Maintain client and community safety through appropriate application of CPI NVCI training.
- Assist residence with disabilities, by bathing them, feeding and showing compassion.
- Work with Kronos (timekeeping system) and making schedules for the DSP.
- Assist patients with activities of daily living of MRDD patients in a long term care facility.
- Instruct or advise clients on issues such as household cleanliness, utilities, hygiene, nutrition.
- Support activities of daily living (ADL) with individual clients provide customer service, report changes to RN or supervisor.
- Provide support through assisting with ADL's, financial budgeting, cleaning, cooking, light housekeeping, and social skills.
- Document consumers progress on ISP objectives, document in client flow sheets, seizure records, feeding sheets, BM records.
- Follow clients' individuals support plan (ISP) and provides support need for each individual to reach his/her individual goals.
- Complete certification in CPR and physical management.
- Respond to emergencies affecting individual, including administering CPR and using approve intervention techniques.
- Experience range, including cerebral palsy, obsessive compulsive disorder, pervasive developmental disorder and autism.
Direct care staffer skills and personality traits
We calculated that 14% of Direct Care Staffers are proficient in Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and CPR. They’re also known for soft skills such as Detail oriented, Integrity, and Interpersonal skills.
We break down the percentage of Direct Care Staffers that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Mental Health, 14%
Provided and assisted mental health groups for adolescents diagnosed with developmentally delayed cognitive abilities, substance abuse history, and trauma.
- Developmental Disabilities, 8%
Supervised individuals with developmental disabilities.
- CPR, 8%
Responded to emergencies affecting individual, including administering CPR and using approved intervention techniques.
- Patients, 6%
Worked with patients diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders, Down Syndrome, Mental Retardation and Articulation and Phonological Processing Disorders.
- Autism, 6%
Assisted and monitored children diagnosed with Mental Retardation, Autism and other psychological disorders in a residential treatment facility.
- Crisis Intervention, 5%
Respond to emergency medical situations and provide crisis intervention during working normal working schedule and after hours as necessary.
Most direct care staffers use their skills in "mental health," "developmental disabilities," and "cpr" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential direct care staffer responsibilities here:
Detail oriented. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a direct care staffer to have is detail oriented. Their role and responsibilities require that "home health aides and personal care aides must adhere to specific rules and protocols and carefully follow instructions to help take care of clients." Direct care staffers often use detail oriented in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "assisted with development of and execution of isp goals; wrote progress notes detailing interventions and progress towards isp goals. "
Integrity. Another essential skill to perform direct care staffer duties is integrity. Direct care staffers responsibilities require that "home health aides and personal care aides should make clients feel comfortable when they tend to personal activities, such as helping a client bathe." Direct care staffers also use integrity in their role according to a real resume snippet: "supervised clients to establish desired independent living skills while maintaining respect and integrity. "
Interpersonal skills. This is an important skill for direct care staffers to perform their duties. For an example of how direct care staffer responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "home health aides and personal care aides must work closely with clients." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a direct care staffer: "utilized strong interpersonal skills to assist with the daily activities of mrdd adults. ".
Physical stamina. For certain direct care staffer responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "physical stamina." The day-to-day duties of a direct care staffer rely on this skill, as "home health aides and personal care aides should be comfortable performing physical tasks." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what direct care staffers do: "direct care staff i worked primarily with vulnerable adults with serious persistent mental illness and both physical and mental limitations. "
The three companies that hire the most direct care staffers are:
- Lincoln Financial Group104 direct care staffers jobs
- National Mentor Holdings Inc.
57 direct care staffers jobs
- Advocates37 direct care staffers jobs
Choose from 10+ customizable direct care staffer resume templates
Build a professional direct care staffer resume in minutes. Our AI resume writing assistant will guide you through every step of the process, and you can choose from 10+ resume templates to create your direct care staffer resume.
Compare different direct care staffers
Direct care staffer vs. Provider
Health care providers are health professionals and health organizations offering health care treatment and diagnosis services. These professionals play significant roles with patients through consultation, treatment, and advice. The health care they provide is of different variations. They even perform other procedures depending on the needs of the patients. Their responsibilities include comprehensive care and specialist work. Also, they help in duties, medication, and housekeeping. They transport clients to and from errands, activities, and appointments.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, direct care staffer responsibilities require skills like "autism," "crisis intervention," "behavioral issues," and "community outings." Meanwhile a typical provider has skills in areas such as "healthcare," "customer service," "social work," and "excellent interpersonal." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
Providers really shine in the health care industry with an average salary of $55,214. Comparatively, direct care staffers tend to make the most money in the manufacturing industry with an average salary of $30,329.The education levels that providers earn slightly differ from direct care staffers. In particular, providers are 3.3% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a direct care staffer. Additionally, they're 0.7% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Direct care staffer vs. Residential instructor
A residential counselor is responsible for guiding and providing the residents with their basic needs and other resources to support them in their daily living. Residential counselors' duties include maintaining the safety of the community by enforcing safety guidelines and procedures for the residents' compliance, organizing productive and engaging community activities, updating the residents of any changes and policies in the community, and resolving conflicts by counseling and understanding each resident's differences. A residential counselor must have excellent communication and decision-making skills to ensure the development of residents in a living facility.
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, direct care staffer responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "cpr," "patients," "behavioral issues," and "meal prep." Meanwhile, a residential instructor has duties that require skills in areas such as "direct care," "direct support," "behavioral health issues," and "meal preparation." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
Residential instructors may earn a lower salary than direct care staffers, but residential instructors earn the most pay in the education industry with an average salary of $31,699. On the other hand, direct care staffers receive higher pay in the manufacturing industry, where they earn an average salary of $30,329.residential instructors earn similar levels of education than direct care staffers in general. They're 1.9% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.7% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Direct care staffer vs. Residential program worker
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, direct care staffers are more likely to have skills like "autism," "role model," "data collection," and "direct supervision." But a residential program worker is more likely to have skills like "direct care," "adaptive," "money management," and "forks."
Residential program workers make a very good living in the health care industry with an average annual salary of $28,780. On the other hand, direct care staffers are paid the highest salary in the manufacturing industry, with average annual pay of $30,329.When it comes to education, residential program workers tend to earn similar degree levels compared to direct care staffers. In fact, they're 0.1% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.4% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Direct care staffer vs. Residential counselor
Types of direct care staffer
Updated January 8, 2025
