By Geralyn Magan
LeadingAge Maryland is working to enhance the role frontline housing staff play in supporting resident well-being. The LTSS Center will evaluate its success.
LeadingAge Maryland has selected the LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston to evaluate a two-year project designed to help maintenance staff and property managers at affordable senior housing communities take on an enhanced role to support the well-being of residents.
Scaling What Works: Connecting and Equipping Staff Teams Within Affordable Housing for Older Adults will train maintenance staff and property managers at 16 affordable housing communities in urban Baltimore City, suburban Baltimore County, and rural Harford County, MD. The project is supported by a $190,055 grant from the Enterprise Community Partners’ Thome Aging Well Program and a $100,00 grant from The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation.
Project partners include Catholic Charities Senior Communities, Comprehensive Housing Assistance Incorporated, The Community Builders, CSI Support and Development, and GEDCO. All partners are LeadingAge member organizations.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
The Scaling What Works project grew out of a collaboration called the Maryland Affordable Senior Housing Workgroup, led by LeadingAge Maryland and funded by the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation. The collaboration exists to help expand access to quality, affordable housing, services, and support for older Marylanders.
During the two-year project, maintenance staff and property managers in each participating housing community will be trained to support and engage with residents to identify potential challenges or safety concerns and to work with the community’s service coordinator. In addition, the training program will help frontline housing staff improve their knowledge and skills regarding:
- The aging process.
- Person-centered care.
- Responding to challenging behaviors.
- Understanding other staff members’ duties.
Older adults and frontline staff members who live and work in the 16 communities will be part of an advisory team that informs the project’s design and deployment. The LeadingAge Maryland project team will develop training materials and an implementation guide to help scale the program in other affordable senior housing communities in Maryland and nationwide.
LeadingAge Maryland and its partners anticipate that older adults in the project’s 16 housing communities will experience a variety of improved outcomes related to service utilization, social connectedness, and physical well-being. The premise of the proposed intervention is that maintenance staff and property managers are in the best position to intervene when help is needed.
“Often, (these staff members) interact with the residents in these communities more than anyone else, yet most have received very little to no specialized training in working with older people,” says Allison Ciborowski, LeadingAge Maryland president and CEO and project director.
ABOUT THE EVALUATION
The LTSS Center will conduct a process and outcomes evaluation to support continuous quality improvement around the training process. Researchers will conduct focus groups, surveys, and interviews with program participants, service coordinators, and owners/operators of the housing communities to:
- Assess the impact of the training program and differences across housing communities.
- Collect feedback on the training and implementation process.
- Identify barriers to success.
- Examine turnover rates, staff referrals to the service coordinator, resident complaints, and resident satisfaction with the community.
Findings from the process evaluation will inform the development of an implementation guide designed to prepare organizations for the intervention and offer activities and structures to support implementation and continued application. The training modules and implementation guide will be disseminated to over 2,000 affordable senior housing communities that are members of LeadingAge.