Survey Reports Shed Light on Vaccine Acceptance and the Potential Impact of Vaccine Mandates
Two surveys were recently released with promising results. The first showed that Direct Support Professionals (DSPs) appear to be catching up with other health care workers in accepting vaccines and the second revealed that service providers are not too worried about the impact of vaccine and testing mandates. The Institute on Community Integration, in partnership with the National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals, published a report on a survey of 5,400 DSPs, with 69% reporting they had already been fully vaccinated. At the time the survey was conducted, 93% of their employers had not yet mandated vaccination as a condition of employment.
With vaccine and testing mandates on the horizon in Delaware, the results of a survey that A.N.D. Executive Director Thomas Cook asked aSuggestion to conduct suggest that most providers of I/DD and behavioral health services feel that vaccine and testing mandates will not make workforce shortages much worse than they already are (less than 5% of the 92 responding service providers felt employees would quit if vaccines became mandatory). Both surveys also gave additional qualitative information suggesting what accounts for vaccine resistance among DSPs and how service providers have been addressing it.