Chapter 8 262 the coaching trajectories. Pre- and post-measurements of the intention to change health behaviour created a unique opportunity to test hypotheses following from the scarcity theory. Specifically, we hypothesized that a) health behaviour was low on the list of priorities of multi-problems families entering a coaching trajectory, and b) that the intention to change unhealthy behaviour will increase over time, when other problems are to some extent solved. Method Setting A social work organization in Rotterdam and Nissewaard, the Netherlands, implemented a strength-based coaching trajectory of multi-problem families, i.e. families facing problems at the socioeconomic, psychosocial and parental domain simultaneously.8 Coaching trajectories aim at empowering families to regain a sense of control, to stimulate growth and to facilitate the acquisition of important life skills needed to improve the life prospects of the families. Furthermore, coaching trajectories are supervised by social workers, called coaches. Essentially, coaches and clients work on problems perceived as most important for clients, which may be in different domains of life. Eight broad categories are used to group similar goals into so called GrowthFields; Money, Housing, Health, Safety, Social relationships, Growing up, Self-management and Personal development. Each goal consists of smaller units called plans and plans consist of smaller units called steps. For example, a goal like “I can manage my debts” consists of plans such as “I avoid getting new debts” or “I have insight in my debts” and steps as “I contact the creditors” or “I calculate what I can spend each month”. The first phase of the coaching trajectory, approximately taking three weeks (although this differs per person), is aimed at reducing stress and resolving crisis situations, while the second phase aims at coaches and families jointly working on strengthening capacities, leading up to the third phase where families are expected to work on life domains independently with help from a distance. To further assist coaches and clients in the coaching process an app called GrowPad was developed, focusing on empowerment of the users. Clients can use the app to track their goals progress and to communicate with coaches. Uniquely, clients own their accounts and access to the coaching plan is conditional on their approval. The app is in compliance with the current General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
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