While many interventions designed to address the housing needs of adults with disabilities exist, few target housed populations at risk for eviction, homelessness, and institutionalization due to complex needs stemming from disabilities and behavioral health conditions. Behavioral Health Coaching was designed to fill this critical gap in services and promote housing stabilization and independence among adults with disabilities and behavioral health conditions residing in publicly subsidized housing. The Georgia Health Policy Center and Center for Leadership in Disability at Georgia State University will partner with the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC), Emory University’s Fuqua Center for Late-Life Depression, Atlanta Housing, Campbell-Stone Atlanta, the Georgia Division of Aging Services, and adults with disabilities and behavioral health conditions, to advance the goal of conducting a formative evaluation and evaluability assessment of ARC’s Behavioral Health Coaching program to develop a blueprint for a rigorous evaluation of the program model. The three-year study will apply a community-based participatory research approach and engage a community advisory board in the co-design of all aspects of the mixed-methods research. Objectives include: identifying the program’s core components; understanding and improving program services and processes; collecting information about evaluation priorities and readiness; engaging stakeholders in an evaluability assessment to formalize the program model; determine the feasibility, benefits, and costs of assessing the program’s impact; and developing and testing the feasibility of a comprehensive evaluation protocol. Anticipated outcomes and products include a theory of change, logic model, case flow diagram, and comprehensive evaluation protocol and recommendations for an efficacy study of Behavioral Health Coaching, which will be disseminated widely through diverse and accessible channels.
