After almost three years at Sunshine Communities in Maumee, Toni Hazen-Mansfield, who wears close to a buzz cut, occasionally wants to pull what little hair she has out of her head at the end of a long workday.
A support center for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities, Sunshine’s staff members occasionally deal with crises when individuals become aggressive or when “things go haywire,” said Mrs. Hazen-Mansfield, 24, of Bowling Green.
“Things ... normally can go from zero to 100 real quick,” she said. “[But] I love my job. It doesn't scare me.”
It’s a job that Mrs. Hazen-Mansfield arrived at via a circuitous route.
When she was 11, she began caring for her ill father while her mother worked full time.
Despite the balance of finishing homework, caring for her father, and helping her mother lead the household, she graduated valedictorian from Jackson-Milton High School in North Jackson, Ohio, receiving a full-ride scholarship to Youngstown State University.
But she dropped out before the end of her first semester to spend time with her father. She drove him to appointments and helped him take his various medications until she was 19, when her father died.
Then she came out as gay, a move some of her family members did not accept.
The combination of her father’s passing and coming out drove her to heroin during her first semester at college. After overdosing in 2015, she moved to Northwest Ohio to change her life around. Inspired by the experience of caring for her father, she got a job at Sunshine.
Now she’s in the challenging career of a direct support professional, or DSPs. According to federal statistics, the field has a 45 percent turnover rate nationwide. And when DSPs quit, it can be traumatic for people with disabilities, who often grow attached, said Mrs. Hazen-Mansfield, who is now a behavioral technician.
Sunshine, along with several other agencies that care for people with disabilities, are looking to combat that turnover statistic, and Mrs. Hazen-Mansfield is enrolled in one of the programs they hope helps address the problem.
“Providers are realizing that unless we help staff through personal life issues, we’re going to keep losing them,” Sunshine spokesman Robin Erb said. “It’s a really tough job if you’re distracted by personal issues.”
In 2016, a group of agencies — Sunshine, Bittersweet Farms, Josina Lott Residential & Community Services, Community Residential Services, Champaign Residential Services, and Triad Residential Services — formed EaRNed Success, an employee resource network. The program was originally established as part of the Healthier Buckeye Grant, which allotted $750,000 to recruit, train, and retain DSPs in Lucas County.
One of the EaRNed Success resources is Getting Ahead in the Workplace, a 21-session program established in March, 2017, to guide staff through personal and professional obstacles. Throughout the program’s five runs, 43 graduates, including Mrs. Hazen-Mansfield, have discussed their upbringing, reflected on short-term and long-term goals, and identified steps to overcome personal barriers.
Pay for direct support professionals is low — the average national wage is $10.72 an hour, with half relying on government-funded and means-tested benefits, according to federal statistics.
And many lack reliable transportation, affordable child care, or financial literacy, said Lucas County Board of Developmental Disabilities spokesman Lon Mitchell. According to support coach Faith McCreary, one of two coaches who works with EaRNed Success affiliates’ staff, DSPs also often balance multiple jobs to make ends meet.
For Mrs. Hazen-Mansfield, Getting Ahead helped her process her past trauma with others who shared similar experiences. Now, she no longer cries nor suffers from panic attacks when she tells her story.
“It helped me to realize I’m not alone,” she said. “There are other people who have dealt with these things.”
At the conclusion of the program, the 13 graduates at each session share their plans for the future. In the short term, Mrs. Hazen-Mansfield plans to join a big brother-big sister program. She also plans to return to college.
For now, she will enroll in other free courses available to Sunshine employees to get back into the swing of learning at school, she said.
“To get my big goal, I need to work on my smaller goals first,” she said. “If I keep myself going, I’m going to get that degree that I want.”
Contact Hailey Fuchs at hfuchs@theblade.com, 419-724-6050, or on Twitter @Hailey_Fuchs.
First Published July 7, 2018, 2:09 a.m.
