Derek Nord

The State of the Science of Employment and Economic Self-Sufficiency for People With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Employment, career advancement, and financial independence are highly valued in the United States. As expectations, they are often instilled at a young age and incentivized throughout adulthood. Despite their importance, employment and economic sufficiency continue to be out of reach for most people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Over the last quarter century, extensive research and effort has been committed to understanding and improving these phenomena. This paper summarizes this employment research base by reviewing the literature on the effectiveness of the current employment support system, employment-specific interventions, and the economics and cost benefits of employment for people with IDD. Recommendations and directions for future research are also presented.

Employment and Economic Self-Sufficiency:2015 National Goals for Research, Policy, and Practice

Abstract Employment in general workforce and economic self-sufficiency continue to be the exceptions for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), rather than the norm. Researc...

Direct support workforce supporting individuals with IDD: current wages, benefits, and stability.

Abstract Direct support professionals (DSPs) and frontline supervisors (FLSs) play an integral role in the lives of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and are often the individuals directly responsible for assisting people with IDD to live and fully participate in their communities. These two groups of workers have typically been employed at lower wages with limited access to fringe benefits, contributing to high rates of turnover compared to a similarly skilled worker in the United States. This article summarizes findings and is the first investigation in several years to systematically examine the wages, fringe benefits, and stability of the DSP and FLS workforces supporting individuals with IDD. Findings suggest that a typical DSP may expect to earn about

Competency-Based Training and Worker Turnover in Community Supports for People with IDD: Results from a Group Randomized Controlled Study.

11.25 per hour, while FLSs may expect wages of about

Economic and programmatic indicators explain vocational rehabilitation employment rates of persons with cognitive disabilities

15.45 hourly. Of concern, however, is that fringe benefit provision was quite limited in this sample. Implications, including relation to past reports of DSP workforce development, are discussed.

Building community capacity to advance employment: Putting faith to work

Turnover among direct support professionals (DSPs) in community support settings for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) has been regarded as a challenge since tracking of this workforce began in the 1980s. This study utilized a group randomized controlled design to test the effects of a competency-based training intervention for DSPs on site-level turnover rates over a one year period. Results suggested that, compared with the control group, sites receiving the training intervention experienced a significant decrease in annual turnover, when multiple factors were controlled. Implications, including the importance of considering quality training as a long term organizational investment and intervention to reduce turnover, are discussed.

The Negative Effects of Public Benefits on Individual Employment: A Multilevel Analysis of Work Hours

This national study investigated state economic health and state Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) services for persons with cognitive disabilities. Using 2004 to 2010 extant data from the Rehabilitation Services Administration(RSA) and the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the U.S. Census Bureau, this study explains variability in state VR services employment outcomes based on state economic performance and state-level VR factors. The results show state economic performance explains a significant amount of the variation in state VR employment rates for persons with cognitive disabilities. An additional significant amount of variation was explained after accounting for VR programmatic factors. These findings have broad economic and programmatic implications that should be considered to improve the employment rate of persons with cognitive disabilities.

More Job Services—Better Employment Outcomes: Increasing Job Attainment for People With IDD

The percentage of people with disabilities who are employed continues to be critically low. The existing services and supports infrastructure faces many constraints, including its limited capacity to reach and serve all people needing assistance. There is a present day need to find new ways to support job seekers with disabilities. Putting Faith to Work has emerged as a promising approach to build the capacity of faith-based communities to serve people with disabilities to find and keep work. This paper describes the background of the Putting Faith to Work model, as well as an overview of key features.

Changing the message: Employment as a means out of poverty

Public benefits are widely used by people with intellectual and development disabilities (IDD) as crucial financial supports. Using Rehabilitation Service Administration 911 and Annual Review Report datasets to account for individual and state vocational rehabilitation (VR) agency variables, a sample of 21,869 people with IDD were analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling to model the effects of public benefits on hours worked per week. Findings point to associations that indicate that public benefits not only limit access to employment participation, they also have a restricting effect on growth of weekly hours that typically come with higher wage positions, compared those that do not access benefits. The article also lays out important implications and recommendations to increase the inclusion of people with IDD in the workplace.

Implementation of Job Development Practices

Job search, job placement, and on-the-job supports are valuable services provided to many people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) to obtain work in the community. Investigating those who were unemployed at the time of service entry, this study seeks to extend understanding about the effect of services. Using extant data, a sample of 39,277 people with IDD using Vocational Rehabilitation services were studied to understand the potential cumulative effects of these job-related services and individual characteristics on job attainment. Findings showed people with IDD of different demographic groups had different outcomes. Also, those receiving three job-related services were 16 times more likely to obtain employment than the reference group. This study has wide implications for research, policy, and practice.