A direct support professional is the worker paid to help a person with an intellectual or developmental disability live in a community, rather than in an institution. The job is the shift itself. It can mean getting someone up, a meal, a ride, time at a job or a day program, and the notes that show what happened.
The work is broader than personal care. A shift often mixes hands-on help with teaching a skill, showing up at a community place the person chose, and staying through the part of the day that would otherwise fall apart. Agencies and training programs use the full name when they are talking about a profession. Job ads, wage bills, and staffing surveys usually shorten it to DSP.
This is not a nursing license. A direct support professional is also not a qualified intellectual disability professional, the credential federal rules use inside an intermediate care facility. States and employers set the training. There is no single national license that makes someone a direct support professional, which is why the title means slightly different things from one state to the next.
The employer is usually a provider agency billing Medicaid. In self-direction, the person receiving support, or someone they choose, is the employer, and a financial management service runs payroll. The tasks can look the same. The boss, the timesheet, and the rules about hiring a relative do not.
The National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals publishes a code of ethics and a set of competency areas that many agencies borrow for training. That is the field's argument that the job is skilled work, not a generic aide title. Wages are a separate question. They are set in fee schedules, wage floors, and rate studies, and they are the workforce story this desk covers.