Disability care providers in Minnesota regularly put the lives of their residents ahead of their own, pulling double shifts and sacrificing their personal lives to ensure the people they care for can live full lives. Despite the medical knowledge, patience, and attention to personal detail these jobs require, caregivers are paid just more than minimum wage, and new staff members are hard to come by. Read and listen to the story here.

Diane Road caregiver Cat Mcnamara looks into the eyes of Sarah Gonella as Gonella has a seizure at the Diane Road group home in Mendota Heights, Minn. the morning of June 21, 2017. Gonella, who's had physical and intellectual disabilities since infancy, also suffers from epilepsy.
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Caregivers walk Sarah Gonella up the driveway through the rain outside of the Diane Road group home as she returns home from a day program
in Mendota Heights, Minn. on the afternoon of Monday, June 12, 2017.
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Caregiver Francis Ebuchu holds the phone for Jimmy Mossow so he can schedule his own haircut appointment inside the living room of the Diane Road group home in Mendota Heights, Minn. on June 12, 2017.
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Caregiver Majid Sulemana shaves resident David G.'s face inside the bathroom of the Diane Road group home in Mendota Heights, Minn. on June 19, 2017.
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Caregiver Nikki Theyson uses an electronic lift to get Jimmy Mossow out of bed the morning of at the Diane Road group home in Mendota Heights on June 20, 2017.
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Caregivers Cat Mcnamara, right, and Rosie Moriarty, center, look after Sarah Gonella after she had a seizure before breakfast the morning of June 21, 2017. Gonella suffers from epilepsy, but the combination with her other physical and intellectual disabilities can make them very subtle, requiring her caregivers to be familiar with the details of her behavior.
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Caegiver Rosie Moriarty waits for the bus at the end of the driveway with Jimmy Mossow and David G. before they head to work the morning of Tuesday, June 20, 2017. Going to work doesn't always mean a job, residents of Diane Road attend a number of different day programs where they can do crafts and activities and get a paycheck.
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House coordinator Chelsey Knop, left, and caregivers Rosie Moriarty, center, and Francis Ebuchu, right, talk about what they would do if they won the lottery in the kitchen of the Diane Road Group home in Mendota Heights, Minn. on Monday, June 19, 2017. Caregivers for people with disabilities in Minnesota often make near minimum wage and regularly work overtime to provide proper care for their residents.
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Caregiver Cat McNamara jokes with Jimmy Mossow as he is lifted onto a bus to go to work outside of the Diane Road Group Home in Mendota Heights, Minn. on the morning of Tuesday, June 20, 2017.
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Sarah Gonella and David. G. hold hands on board the bus to their day program outside of the Diane Road group home in Mendota Heights, Minn. on , Aug. 4, 2017. According to their caregivers, David never lets Sarah sit on the outside seat of the bus, and the two hold hands on the ride to and from work.
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Mary Mossow, center left, talks to her son, Jimmy Mossow, left, as a caregiver takes care of another resident inside the Diane Road group home in Mendota Heights, Minn. on Thursday, July 20, 2017. Mary makes it a point to visit her son at the home multiple times every week.
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Jimmy Mossow receives medication from a caregiver inside the Diane Road group home in Mendota Heights, Minn. on July 25, 2017. Caregivers are responsible for measuring, preparing and administering a wide variety of medications specific to each resident, despite having no state medical certification.
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David G. hugs caregiver Jill Tolefson as she tries to brush the teeth of Sarah Gonella before sitting down to breakfast at the Diane Road group home in Mendota Heights, Minn. on Aug. 1, 2017.
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A caregiver prepares the day's medications for the residents of the Diane Road group home in Mendota Heights, Minn., on Aug. 1, 2017.
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Sarah Gonella sleeps holding hands with house coordinator Chelsey Knop inside the Diane Road group home in Mendota Heights, Minn. on Aug. 8, 2017.
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Two caregivers watch over 5 of the Diane Road group home's 6 residents just before dinner in Mendota Heights, Minn. on, Aug. 9, 2017.
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