Family Eldercare, as lead agency for collaboration of aging services agencies in Central Texas, has been awarded a 3-year service demonstration grant from the Administration on Aging (AoA) for low-income older adults who are residents in six public housing properties.
The goals of the service project entitled, “A Better Way to Live at Home (BWTLH),” are to help low-income older residents of six public housing sites improve their quality of life and prolong independent living and reduce premature institutionalization. In year one, the service grant project will focus on the older residents of four housing properties in the City of Austin. In years two and three, the project will be expanded to additional sites outside the City.
Namekee Choi is the evaluation contractor for the case coordination and management and other on-site supportive service components of BWTLH for the 3-year duration of the project, and has agreed to perform the needs assessment, progress monitoring, and outcome evaluation for these components of the AoA service grant project.
In the needs assessment phase, we will conduct individualized assessments and focus groups with older residents (see the baseline assessment and focus group instruments) to collect data on their health and mental health status, life satisfaction, and other indicators of quality of life and well-being and to determine their unmet needs for health and mental health services, other social services, social engagement, and volunteering. We will also conduct a focus group with the Housing Authority staff to receive their feedback regarding the unmet needs of older residents.
During the progress monitoring phase, we will monitor the program/service implementation and collect data on the rates of residents’ participation in each service/program and their level of satisfaction with each program/service. During this phase, we will also work with the project manager, service coordinators/case managers in each housing site, and a volunteer coordinator to develop a list of programs/services, based on the results of the baseline assessments.
In the outcome evaluation phase, we will conduct individualized follow-up assessments to collect data on the residents’ health and mental health status, life satisfaction, and other indicators of quality of life and well-being and assess their unmet needs for health and mental health services, other social services, social engagement, and volunteering. Statistical analysis will be done to compare the residents’ baseline assessment scores to their follow-up assessment scores.
Sponsor: Family Eldercare / US DHHS Administration on Aging