Kenneth Bence

speaker

245 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jun 2026 last heard 19 Jun

Kenneth Bence’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 1.

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Health Chatter · Disabilities Research & Policy with Kenneth Bence · 19 Jun 2026 podcast

there is no defined occupation for a direct support worker.

And so we can't really collect data nationally on what they get paid, what skillset they need and so on, which also means that there isn't really a career path for somebody to follow because there's no defined job.

So there's been an effort for the past several years to create a job classification specifically for a direct support worker

mainly in this home and community-based services setting.

Would that be a- That's an aspect of it, yeah.

So, Minnesota has sort of created an algorithm to determine what a wage might be for a direct support worker.

And it includes aspects of

a nursing assistant, a psychiatric assistant, a social and human services aide, and things like that.

And so it's sort of putting together from existing job classifications, making this amalgam.

But it really doesn't speak to the breadth of skills that these people have to have.

And as Barry mentioned earlier, very individualized to the specific person they're supporting, what that person's needs are.

And so it's very in-depth in the amount of training to support one person and what they need and what they prefer.

And so there's been good progress at the national level to get that done.

And so we're supportive of that.

I suppose in both to a degree, but our role is we advocate on behalf of the providers.

Right, right.

But I want to point out, though, that there's a large group of hidden caregivers, hidden providers, because many people with disabilities live in their family of origin.

And it's their family that's providing the supports.

They may, through the Medicaid program or Medicaid waivers, receive support.

And they may bring people in to provide the supportive services.

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