We are happy to announce this year’s Direct Support Professional of the Year Award winner goes to Donald who works at one of our residential apartment settings!
Donald has been a DSP with Continuum for over 20 years! Here is Donald’s winning nomination:
Donald consistently displays an extremely high level of person-centered thinking for the individuals he serves. He has done so in a variety of settings and with a variety of individuals and he’s truly shown these principles are ingrained into who he is as a person. Over the years he has made many adjustments to his work schedule to accommodate individual preferences and requests for the simplest things such as grocery shopping, medication administration, and personal shopping times. He has come in on days off to accommodate individual travel schedules and to travel with them because no other staff were available. Over the years, he has worked very closely with individuals who may have issues with their home environment or hygiene. He’s done an amazing job of helping them develop skills to be independent in these areas of their life and proud of themselves for the journey it took for them to arrive at that point.
The number of lives Donald has affected over his 20 years of service cannot be counted. Most recently, while Donald was working with an individual he serves, he noticed the individual was not at his baseline and was acting lethargic and not quite like himself. The individual kept telling Donald that he was OK, but Donald knew in the back of his mind something was not right. Donald passed all the appropriate information along to his supervisor and nurse. He was then asked to take the individual to the hospital, where it was discovered, that the individual possibly could have passed away in the coming hours due to silent aspiration pneumonia. Due to Donald’s close observations and knowledge of the individual he was able to save his life.
Donald has great communication skills and he’s done a great job of passing along all observations to his coworkers to make sure everyone is on the same page and can recognize when an individual isn’t at their normal baseline.
Since the life-threatening incident occurred, Donald has had great communication with the individual he serves, making sure the individual will communicate any health concerns he may have, regardless of the seriousness of the concern.
So many times, small observations can be overlooked. However, Donald did an amazing job following his instincts and 20 years of experience. Due to his close observations, he was able to save this individual’s life! For this, and all your years of dedication, thank you!
Congratulations, Donald!