[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 4 (Friday, January 5, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 1147-1148]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-309]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration


Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; 
Comment Request

    In compliance with Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995 concerning opportunity for public comment on proposed 
collections of information, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health 
Services Administration will publish periodic summaries of proposed 
projects. To request more information on the proposed projects or to 
obtain a copy of the information collection plans, call the SAMHSA 
Reports Clearance Officer on (301) 443-7978.
    Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collections of 
information are necessary for the proper performance of the functions 
of the agency, including whether the information shall have practical 
utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the 
proposed collection of information; (c) ways to enhance the quality, 
utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and (d) ways 
to minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents, 
including through the use of automated collection techniques or other 
forms of information technology.
    Proposed Project: Pilot Testing of Outcome Measures in Programs 
Providing Services to Persons Who are Homeless and Have Serious Mental 
Illnesses--New--SAMHSA's Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) 
provides funds to states and territories to provide services to 
individuals who are homeless and have serious mental illnesses. These 
services enable persons who are homeless and have serious mental 
illnesses to be placed in appropriate housing situations and linked to 
mental health services. To comply with requests for client outcome 
data, State and local providers have sought measures which could help 
them more effectively monitor and manage their programs as well as 
demonstrate program effectiveness.
    Interest in performance measurement and evaluation of policies, 
programs and individual services has increased

[[Page 1148]]

dramatically with the passage of the Government Performance and Results 
Act (GPRA) in 1993. GPRA focuses new attention on the quality of 
outcome measures used to collect information about publicly funded 
programs. Programs that provide services to persons who are homeless 
and have serious mental illnesses are facing greater need to document 
their effectiveness. These outcome data will ultimately be used in 
responding to Congressional and HHS oversight, GPRA requirements, and 
the requests of other governmental levels, managed care companies, and 
private funding sources.
    The project will test the appropriateness and feasibility of 
selected indicators to measure the outcome of services to persons who 
are homeless and have serious mental illnesses. Outcome measures to be 
evaluated include housing status, sobriety or drug-free status, mental 
health treatment status, enrollment in an educational program, and 
employment.
    In addition, the project will evaluate process measures pertaining 
to outreach, service delivery and linkage stages of intervention. These 
process indicators include the type of contact (i.e., referrals, walk-
ins, fixed outreach, and mobile outreach); whether the person contacted 
agreed to services, reasons for any non-enrollment, and referral to, 
and provision of, specific services.
    The project will test these outcome and process measures in a total 
of approximately six provider agencies in each of five participating 
States. The findings of the pilot test will serve as the basis for 
recommendations for a voluntary national implementation of data 
collection in similar programs, nationwide. It will also test the 
feasibility of compiling such data in a central data collection point.
    Local providers will report information on services provided to 
individuals served. Providers will report aggregate information from 
their records for all new clients during a one-month period. 
Information will be reported on the initial client contact, on services 
clients receive over the next six months and on client outcomes at the 
end of six months. In addition, half of the provider agencies will 
report client followup information at a period 60 days after the 
conclusion of the six-month period. It is anticipated that this 
information will be collated from existing provider records. Data will 
be submitted to the central data point in aggregate form, not by 
individual client. Projected response burden for the project is 
summarized in the table below.

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                                                                                                      Estimated
                                                                            Estimated     Average       total
                                                               Estimated    number of      burden       annual
                                                               number of    responses    hours per      burden
                                                              respondents      per        response      hours
                                                                            respondent                requested
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Initial and six-month aggregate report......................           30            1           10          300
Follow-up aggregate report..................................           15            1           10          150
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    Total...................................................           30  ...........  ...........          450
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    Send comments to Nancy Pearce, SAMHSA Reports Clearance Officer, 
Room 16-105, Parklawn Building, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20857. 
Written comments should be received within 60 days of this notice.

    Dated: December 29, 2000.
Richard Kopanda,
Executive Officer, SAMHSA.
[FR Doc. 01-309 Filed 1-4-01; 8:45 am]
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