A new research brief offers 19 lessons to help housing communities implement an enhanced service coordinator model.
In 2018, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released a resource guide outlining a “new service coordination model” in which the “role of the service coordinator has evolved to a more proactive level of coordination, engagement, outreach, assistance, and case management.”
A new research brief from the LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston offers a wide range of lessons to help housing communities implement that new model. Work on the brief was funded by the RRF Foundation for Aging.
ADDRESSING INCREASING NEED
Enhancing Service Coordination in HUD-Assisted Senior Housing Communities: Lessons for Implementation begins by describing a gradual change in the characteristics and needs of older adults living in HUD-assisted housing communities as current residents grow older and new residents move in at advanced ages. Research cited in the research brief shows that a significant portion of these residents have multiple chronic conditions, need help with both routine activities of daily living and personal care activities, and are experiencing behavioral health issues or social circumstances that make it challenging for them to identify, access, engage in, and maintain services and benefits.
In response to these increasing needs, many HUD-assisted housing providers have moved beyond offering “basic service coordination,” which focuses primarily on providing information and referral to residents who ask for such assistance. Instead, these housing providers are taking a more proactive approach to offering “enhanced service coordination,” which involves identifying resident needs, connecting residents with responsive services, and helping to ensure residents obtain and maintain needed supports.
ABOUT THE RESEARCH BRIEF
The bulk of the new research brief presents lessons about enhanced service coordination that the LTSS Center has learned through its decade-long research on housing plus services models.
That research included multiple case studies and evaluations of affordable senior housing-based service programs in which service coordination was a central component. In addition, LTSS Center researchers helped support implementation of HUD’s Integrated Wellness in Supportive Housing (IWISH) demonstration, which features an enhanced service coordinator role. Most recently, the center conducted a process evaluation of the LSA Senior Connect model, which was developed by Lutheran Services in America and its partners and implemented by Genacross Lutheran Services.
“Collectively, this work has yielded multiple insights on operationalizing HUD’s vision for an enhanced service coordination model,” write authors Alisha Sanders, Robyn Stone, and Alexandra Hennessa.
LESSONS FOR ENHANCING SERVICE COORDINATION
The research brief’s 19 lessons for enhancing service coordination fall into six categories:
- Service Coordination Availability: The brief shares lessons to help HUD ensure that enough service coordinators are available to carry out an enhanced role that is more time-intensive than standard service coordination.
- Service Coordinator Capacity: The brief recommends five ways to provide enhanced service coordinators with the specialized knowledge and skills they need to assess, engage, and motivate residents.
- Resident Assessments: The brief offers lessons to help service coordinators maximize resident participation in the assessment process, gather reliable responses to assessment questions, and use assessment data to address the health and social service needs of residents.
- Data Utilization: The brief explores ways that housing providers can create an infrastructure that helps enhanced service coordinators use data in a more intentional way to support residents at both the individual and community levels.
- Partnerships: The brief puts forward ideas housing organizations and HUD can use to foster more intentional partnerships that will enhance the ability of housing communities to support residents.
- Organizational Support: Finally, the research brief encourages housing organizations to consider ways they can use policies and practices to enhance their support for and oversight of service coordinators.
“To implement the enhanced service coordinator model, HUD and housing providers must ensure that they are equipping service coordinators with the skills and infrastructure they need to meet higher expectations,” the brief concludes.
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To learn more about how you can implement an enhanced service coordinator model, read Enhancing Service Coordination in HUD-Assisted Senior Housing Communities: Lessons for Implementation.