About this course
This course trains Direct Support Professionals and respite staff working in New York settings certified or funded by the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) on how to build and sustain positive, professional relationships with the people they support. It addresses the 'promoting positive relationships' topic that 14 NYCRR 633.8 requires agencies to train staff on within three months of hire and refresh annually, and it is organized around the first three goal areas of the NYS DSP Core Competencies: Putting People First, Building and Maintaining Positive Relationships, and Demonstrating Professionalism. Learners examine what a warm, reliable, respectful relationship looks like in practice; how person-centered support, the Life Plan, and Care Coordination Organizations shape daily work; choice, informed risk, and dignity of risk; respectful communication and active listening; understanding behavior as communication without any physical intervention techniques, which are taught only through OPWDD-approved SCIP-R or PROMOTE certification; and the nine tenets of the NADSP Code of Ethics. A four-slide sequence on professional boundaries covers dual relationships, gifts and money, social media and personal information, and the absolute prohibition on romantic or sexual relationships. The course closes with cultural humility, partnering with families in respite, recognizing and repairing relationship ruptures, confidentiality and documentation touchpoints, and when to escalate concerns to a supervisor. Realistic New York respite and community scenarios anchor every concept.