direct support professional

case manager

behavioral specialist

clinical support staff

facilitator

Strategies To Empower People

There are definitely a lot of good things about this job and working for this company. First and foremost, the company its self is amazing. They truly do give everything they can to the disabled community. They fight hard, all the way up the ranks within the company and it’s a beautiful thing. It’s not all about profit or making money, and they don’t tolerate the mistreatment of the people we are supporting, which I appreciate.

There are a lot of really wonderful people who work as support staff, who do a really great job supporting those who need us. Of course there are some bad apples but honestly I haven’t seen much of that within this company.

It’s a hard job, and you definitely have to have the right mentality for it. You have to have superior time management skills, the ability to multitask, and the patience to work with a lot of different types of people who can be very frustrating and not easy to work with at times. It will certainly test you. However, it’s a very satisfying job. Knowing that you get to make a difference in so many different peoples lives every single day, and knowing that you are the reason they get to be out in the community and living a life they potentially wouldn’t get to live otherwise, makes it worth it. It is certainly fulfilling.

Another bonus is that you don’t have anybody micromanaging you. As long as you’re doing your job well, checking in and doing your monthly meetings to make sure you are meeting all of your requirements, you are pretty much left alone. Which is wonderful most of the time. Definitely don’t expect any pats on the back or any acknowledgment of your good hard work because often times, either nobody knows or it’s just not acknowledged. It’s definitely a self gratifying job, and you have to be happy with yourself and not worry about getting recognized. The only time you really hear from your management is if you need to do something differently, you’re missing something, there’s a training, or something of that nature. 

Depending on your caseload, your home/work life balance can be a little challenging. Especially if you’re a person who gives 200%, you will really have to learn to shut off and not bring work home with you. They will tell you that it is essentially a 9-to-5 position, and that you make your own schedule. In actuality, your schedule is based around those you support, so they dictate your schedule, therefore, likely, it will be all over the place. Once you settle in on a caseload and get to know the people you support, your schedule generally does kind of balance out and become a little more regular. But not always, since the needs of your people are going to change regularly. 

There may be one day that you work from 7 to 12, another day that you work from 10 to 9:30, then the next day you may get a person you were supposed to support for five hours and they don’t show up at all. In that case you have to try to get them to meet, and if you can’t, you have to call other people you support to see if they are available, or find some way to make up your hours. Sometimes you can talk to another instructor to see if they have anybody who needs some extra support hours, or who they can’t catch all their hours for.  On the other hand, you may have a busy day, and one of the other people you support may call you with an emergency appointment or some thing. Then you’re trying to scramble to squeeze everything in. Other times you have a split day, where you work a couple hours with one person, then you have nothing to do for the middle part of the day, and have to go back and support someone else for the rest of the day.  None of these things really bother me, it works out fine most of the time. But it is good to know before you start the job.

The only part about this job that is frustrating, and the reason for the lower rating, is management. Firstly, there are never enough managers. The office staff members are all really nice, which is a bonus….but nice isn’t everything. Trying to get the help you need, especially in a pinch, can be very challenging. 

The training you get when you are first hired is very lacking, and will not prepare you for the job at hand. It is are very minimal. Your best bet would to find another instructor who’s been there for a while, and ask if you can pick their brain whenever you need help. Most instructors have been in those shoes and are very nice and would be willing to help. 

There are other trainings as well. Trainings that happen as procedures or things within the company change. These are also very lacking,
 or just too vague and not honed in enough to be understood from scratch… they leave a lot of room for questions and guessing, and even when you do ask the questions, the answers either never come or are very unsatisfying. A good majority of the time, the instructors will leave trainings scratching their heads and feeling like they didn’t learn much of anything. At those times we usually band together a little and try to figure things out on our own as a group without the managers.

Often times, emails go unanswered, and managers have even not shown up for meetings or other things you schedule with them. Again, they are very nice, but I honestly think that they have way too much going on because there aren’t enough of them to go around. They really need more managers.

All in all, I do love the job. But if you come here, be prepared to figure stuff out on your own, and if you need some support, likely, you’ll get it from the other instructors more than the managers. 



I have never felt more suited for a job than I do at STEP.  I have worked at other companies who do the same work but STEP's philosophy is outstanding and everyone from the CEO down to my direct supervisor is an example of integrity and compassion.  I wish the pay was better, but some people don't understand that STEP does not determine the pay...the STATE OF CALIFORNIA funds these services and has not given an increase to help raise the pay of support workers for over a DECADE!  It's the most rewarding job I've ever had but, if I didn't have my spouse's income, I don't know if I could work here.  The State needs to recognize that!  As it is now, there are very few people like me, who love their chosen profession, in this job.  Many substandard support workers come and go because, well, you get what you pay for, unfortunately.  People with disabilities deserve better than that and so do people like me who care for them!  Over all, though, there are good benefits, possibilities for overtime and advancement in this job and the rewards I get outside of pay are far beyond any company I've ever worked for.  I'm good at what I do and I'm made to feel appreciated and valued by my supervisors, co workers and the person I care for.  Huge Christmas party and Summer party every year and the CEO has given either a bonus check or gift cards to employees every year that I've been here!

A typical work day involved doing medicine inventory, and usually scheduling a medical appointment for a client. Many of our clients had varying needs, and degrees of mental or physical disabilities, so throughout my time I became knowledgeable of many different types of terminology. This job was also great in that it required me to be very accurate with and detailed- I was responsible for the care of other people who often took large amounts of very potent medications. It was also part of my job, to catalogue the daily intake, and maintain daily inventory of all medicine & med-related products in stock.

I had good co-workers, that provided a decent support system. I was often training new employees on the job. The most difficult part was usually helping new employees become accustomed to some of the varying circumstances of our clients. To some new employees, they have never seen an adult with cerebral palsy, mild to extreme cases of mental retardation, or how to deal with clients with a negative disposition. But on the upside, it was a good feeling seeing these types of obstacles overcome.

Management is supportive and deeply cares about the employers, but often have too much on their plate to give enough support to the DSPs working one on one with the employers. After working with one employer for 6 months, I have had a new facilitator (supervisor) 5 times because the positions burns people out. 

The workplace culture encourages employees to take care of themselves, but due to understaffing, management will often ask you to pick up more hours. If you are looking for overtime this could be a good position for you. Management is supportive, but only has so much time to give you and often issues go unaddressed unless there is legal obligation to do something.

The hardest part of the job will differ depending on the type of person you are and your employer, but for me it's the inconsistency of support for my employer by various DSPs who do not hold him accountable for his goals and enable him. It is very rewarding to help my employer work on his goals, but it is challenging when he has a behavior because the other DSPs don't support him in working on his goals. 

I worked for this company for over a year. I'm the type of employee that is first to come in the moment you call in sick, get a flat or need a shift covered. In this company thou, I was the only one. I felt I came to everyone's rescue but they never employeed enough staff to cover the occasional sick or vacation time. In my 1 year with them I was not granted any vaca time, ihss time cards were constinitly lost, hours being worked wouldn't be paid for, 3 out of 4 of my boss's would take up to a week to return my phone messages. The communication between employer, employee and facilitator is a huge jumbled mess. The company has a great idea and plan for it's clients but lacks the support from facilitators towards the PSA's doing the actually work. When someone helps me, I want to help them and vis versa. The golden rule should be taught to everyone, not just our clients. This is a "HeartRight" company, yet my heart never felt right, just used.

This was the best Company I have ever worked for, the pay was great the training was in depth and informative and easy to learn, they did paid training and it was a two week process with fallowup training events with the Supervisor of the home I worked in. There Benefits were by far the best I've ever had the paid for a major surgery, they also paid for my 10,000$ hearing aids , and the pay actually matched the cost of living in the area. The President of the company was very down to earth and nice and I got to talk with her, she has a beautiful passion for helping the mental and physically disabled live independently , she was so kind alongside most of the management who were also amazing. I cannot say enough good about this company they are 5 star all the way.

I really love helping people with developmental disabilities. Helping the to achieve their goals was very rewarding for me. The difficult part of my job was being hurt repeatedly by the same person I was there to support. Some parts of management was great and others could use more training. If you don't have a passion for this kind of work this job is not for you. Protesting at the capitol for the rights of the consumers we supported was very rewarding. Helping them to tell their story and to have law makers to see that the people we supported was not just a number.

I do enjoy working with some clientele. However there’s support from coworkers and immediate supervisor but not office management. There’s always overtime but finance will try to change your hours so you don’t receive the correct pay.  Company is supposed to reimburse for mileage. Didn’t receive any for over a year of working here. Wasn’t until I cried to my boss, that I got a mileage check and there’s still a whole year I’m not reimbursed for. 
There’s no work/life balance. There’s constant call outs and schedule changes. Not to mention we’re always understaffed. Management didn’t tell me if my vacation was as approved until I was already supposed to be on vacation. If you like being burnt out then come in the waters great! 

I actually enjoyed working at STEP. I have learn so much about working with clients and how to do this type of what is need. I work more than 12 hours a day depends of my boss assign me of hours but always 12 hours each day on Sat and Sun.  I learn many different  and actually improve my skills with my patient, now i have great amount of hours of patients work with clients, I management my own problem out of way and work and be happy. I love working with one of my favorite client i seen her improve so much and she improve mine as well. The co-workers are good at communicating with me let me know what client did or didn't do. the Hardest part of job is the transposition there is issue with it and couldn't agree where they want me to be.

Typical day depends on the employer. That what we call the clients employers, because we work for them, which I believe is awesome. It gives the "employer" a chance to interview you and the get a day in if they want you to work with them. The company is very person centered which allows the employer to utilize their rights. They get a sense of being in control of their own lives. I'm a big fan of that part. However if you one who needs recognition, wrong company. You won't get all of that. Just be satisfied knowing your doing your part in assisting the employer to live his best life. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Direct support professional 3 salaries reported	$24.67 per hour
Case manager 19 salaries reported	$69,676 per year
Behavioral specialist 32 salaries reported	$22.91 per hour
Clinical support staff 16 salaries reported	$25.00 per hour
Facilitator 17 salaries reported	$63,379 per year

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