Direct support professionals, caregivers are our most valuable players

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April 14, 2020 | tennessean.com

Caregivers and direct support professionals uphold their duties even in the midst of a global pandemic.

tennessean.com

tennessean.com

Every time a Predator gets on the ice, they know that they have some great supporters from our hometown. Now the coronavirus prevents us from watching them play. We all miss watching.

Some of their greatest fans are people with disabilities that our direct care staff would take there when we were lucky enough to have tickets. Now all they can do is shelter in place in their homes and watch reruns.

Our real hardship rests with the direct care professionals who care for them in their group homes. Our nonprofit has been managing homes for people with disabilities in Nashville since 1997.

We really need some help

The heroic efforts of direct care professionals supporting Nashville’s most vulnerable is absolutely vital.  Persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities are living in group homes and they need support.

A direct support professional is an essential employee that does not have the option of safely working from home.  Paid a little more than minimum wage, they ensure the safety of persons with disabilities within the group home.

The direct support professionals leave the safety of their homes to care for a person with disabilities by administering medicine, preparing meals and supporting a person with disabilities struggling to comprehend the changes around them.

Community Options manages the care required 24-hours a day regardless of the global circumstances.  If they contract the virus, another staff continues round the clock care.

Community Options wants to recognize them as our most valuable players. We ask that you keep these brave workers in your thoughts and prayers. We ask you to help us keep them from being further overlooked.

Please help us help them to help others. We can’t give them a Stanley Cup, but we want to help them out as much as we can.

All gifts to Community Options over the next 10 weeks will go towards increasing the pay of a direct support professional on the front lines. Please help us score a lot of goals.

Robert Stack is president and CEO of Community Options in Nashville.