The LTSS Center is evaluating an enhanced service coordinator program implemented in 2019 by Lutheran Services in America.
The LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston will soon begin work on a process evaluation of LSA Senior Connect, an enhanced service coordinator program piloted in February 2019 by Lutheran Services in America (LSA).
The project is being funded by a grant to Lutheran Services from RRF Foundation on Aging. Lutheran Services in America, a network of 300 health and human services providers located throughout the country, has a significant presence in low-income and affordable housing for older adults.
ABOUT LSA SENIOR CONNECT
LSA Senior Connect is a person-centered service coordination model designed to expand services and supports for low-income older adults living in low-income and affordable senior housing. The goal of the program is to help older participants remain in their homes and communities safely and with dignity. LSA Senior Connect has 3 core components:
- Retraining existing staff to engage older adults in a meaningful assessment of their needs.
- Creating an individualized care plan driven by the older adult.
- Connecting the older adult to services and supports that could help them improve their health and quality of life, and enable them to maintain their independence.
Thirteen low-income and affordable housing sites of Genacross Lutheran Services in Toledo, OH implemented LSA Senior Connect in February 2019. Initial screening of residents in the program identified unmet needs for social determinants of health, including nutrition, transportation, social isolation, home safety, and mobility. For more than a year, service coordinators in the program have been working to address these needs by providing program participants with access to such services as healthy food, reliable transportation to medical appointments, in-home supports, and physical therapy.
THE PROCESS EVALUATION
The grant from RRF Foundation on Aging to LSA will allow researchers from the LTSS Center to explore how LSA Senior Connect was implemented, with an eye toward informing and guiding replication of LSA Senior Connect in additional low-income and affordable housing communities for older adults. The study will also contribute to ongoing policy discussions addressing the need for increased investment in supportive services delivered in low-income and affordable housing for older adults across the country, says Alisha Sanders, the LTSS Center’s director of housing and services policy research.
During the next year, researchers will conduct in-depth, qualitative interviews with select LSA and Genacross staff, service coordinators, property managers, residents, and community partners to answer these and other questions:
- Do service coordinators feel they have adequate information, resources, and support to act in a more enhanced capacity? If so, what has been key? If not, what are the gaps?
- Do service coordinators perceive that the organizational infrastructure is adequate to support them in their new role? Are appropriate tools, processes, organizational/management support, and financial resources available?
- What have been the challenges and barriers to successfully implementing LSA Senior Connect and the expanded service coordinator role?
- Are there any improvements that could help better build the capacity of service coordinators to serve in an enhanced role?
- How are the drivers of success in LSA Senior Connect relevant to the enhanced service role described in HUD’s service coordinator resource guide?
LTSS CENTER’S PREVIOUS WORK IN THIS AREA
The LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston has been studying housing plus services models for more than a decade, conducting several evaluations of programs using service coordinators to support older residents of federally subsidized housing. That work included evaluations of 3 housing plus services programs in Colorado, the WellElder program in northern California, and the Support and Services at Home (SASH) program in Vermont.
LTSS Center staff also codeveloped the model currently being implemented in HUD’s Integrated Wellness in Supportive Housing (IWISH) randomized control trial demonstration, which is centered on an enhanced service coordinator and wellness nurse team. The LTSS Center is now working with the Lewin Group and the National WellHome Network to support implementation of the IWISH demonstration in 40 sites across 7 states.