Direct support associates provide direct care to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Your duties include administering their prescribed medication, supervising their meal preparation, scheduling organization, and producing patient progress report. You will also be expected to coach patients to develop money management, income-building skills, and social skills. You must foster and maintain a supportive relationship with your clients.
Some of your other duties include assisting patients with ADL's, performing first aid, CPR, and handling emergency calls/situations as needed. It is equally important that you adhere to confidentiality guidelines as outlined by organization policy and HIPAA regulations. A direct support associate must be empathetic, patient, detail-oriented, easy to communicate with, and possess great interpersonal skills.
Other important skills are intellectual disabilities, independent living, emotional support, personal care, and daily routines. Direct support associates make an average of $10.39 per hour and $21,000 yearly.
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a Direct Support Associate. For example, did you know that they make an average of $14.08 an hour? That's $29,280 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 36% and produce 1,185,800 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many Direct Support Associates have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed Detail oriented, Integrity and Interpersonal skills.
If you're interested in becoming a Direct Support Associate, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 31.2% of Direct Support Associates have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 2.7% of Direct Support Associates have master's degrees. Even though some Direct Support Associates have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a Direct Support Associate. When we researched the most common majors for a Direct Support Associate, we found that they most commonly earn Bachelor's Degree degrees or High School Diploma degrees. Other degrees that we often see on Direct Support Associate resumes include Associate Degree degrees or Diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a Direct Support Associate. In fact, many Direct Support Associate jobs require experience in a role such as Cashier. Meanwhile, many Direct Support Associates also have previous career experience in roles such as Certified Nursing Assistant or Customer Service Representative.