Direct Support Professionals: Stress and Resiliency Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic.

This study reports on the results of an online survey of direct support professionals (DSPs) during the COVID-19 pandemic in June 2020 to measure their perceived quality of life, stressors, coping/resilience skills, and knowledge of health care rights directly related to the pandemic for the persons that they support. Specifically, we examined direct support workers' perceptions of their quality of life, levels of stress, and their self-reported resilience skills. We found that perceived stress was strongly correlated with both self-reported quality of life and resilience, but not with years of DSP experience. Moreover, while DSPs overwhelmingly knew and affirmed health care rights for people with disabilities, they were less knowledgeable about their legal rights during hospital stays.

Perceived stress of individuals with disabilities in the United States during COVID-19.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to better understand how COVID-19 has impacted the stress, resiliency, and quality of life of people with disabilities near the height of the first surge of the COVID-19 pandemic in the summer of 2020. RESEARCH METHOD/DESIGN: An online survey of 990 individuals who self-identified as having at least one disability in the United States was conducted. RESULTS: Quality of life, coping/resilience skills, number of identified disabilities, and age were all significantly related to perceived stress. While access to technology was not significantly related to perceived stress, increased use of technology since the pandemic was associated with increased reported stress, though the practical significance was small. CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS: There is a need for increased attention to dissemination of information to people with disabilities. Knowledge of medical rights was significantly associated with following social distancing practices and suggests that health knowledge does change behavior. Ensuring that people with disabilities are aware of coping skills and how to promote resilience is a needed area of focus for the field. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Personal, health and function, and career maintenance factors as determinants of quality of life among employed people with multiple sclerosis.

BACKGROUND: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an intrusive disease that significantly affects labor force participation. OBJECTIVE: This study examined the extent to which factors at the personal, health and function, and environmental/career maintenance levels contribute to the predictability power for quality of life among employed people with MS. METHOD: Participants consisted of 523 members of nine National Multiple Sclerosis Society chapters representing 21 states and Washington, DC. These individuals were employed at the time of the survey, and they were primarily middle age (average age of 48 years) and Caucasian (74%). RESULTS: The final hierarchical multiple regression model explained 54 percent of the variability in participants' quality of life scores, although none of the hypothesized personal/demographic predictors were significant. Participants who perceived better overall health and lower levels of stress, who experienced less severe cognitive and mobility-related MS symptoms, and who expressed stronger job-person matches and higher levels of job satisfaction reported higher quality of life scores than did other participants. CONCLUSIONS: The findings underscore the complexity involved in predicting perceived quality of life among employed people with MS. Implications of these findings for future research and clinical practice are discussed.