Before the pandemic, Lisa Stagon and her son Chris had their care routine figured out. Chris, who is 26 and has Down syndrome, worked part-time at an Eat’n Park in Westmoreland County, received monthly job training, and spent 46 hours a week with a direct support professional while his mother was at work.
But their structure began to crumble during the pandemic when Chris was laid off and Stagon, fearing Chris could contract COVID-19 through a caregiver, suspended his services. Suddenly Chris was home all day, without any support.
“I was working 50 hours a week and trying to care for him at the same time,” Stagon, 62, said. “It was a lot.”
The breaking point came when Stagon was called back to the office last year after working remotely. She tried to find someone to help Chris with everyday tasks like shaving, cooking, and taking his medications. But agencies across the region were turning families away. There simply wasn’t anyone to do the job.
In July 2020, she made a difficult decision.
“I left the workforce in the pandemic to be a full-time caretaker for him,” she said. “Because it was just — it was too hard.”
Pennsylvania is facing a dire shortage of direct support professionals who help people with intellectual and developmental disabilities bathe, get dressed, eat, exercise, socialize, and perform many other fundamental tasks. Putting an exact number on the shortfall is difficult, as employment data on these workers is lumped together with health-care aides...
Quick Hit: On April 10, 2026, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced the first False Claims Act (“FCA”) resolution secured under its Civil Rights Fraud Initiative. The settlement resolves all...