[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 22 (Monday, February 3, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 5302-5303]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-2392]


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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: SAMHSA/HRSA Collaboration to Link Health Care for 
the Homeless Programs and Community Mental Health Agencies--(New)--The 
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), 
Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS); the Health Resources and 
Services Administration (HRSA), Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC); 
and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation 
(ASPE) propose to conduct a longitudinal, multi-site evaluation 
assessing their initiative to foster collaborations between Health Care 
for the Homeless programs (HCH) and community mental health agencies 
(CMHA). In 12 designated communities, an HCH site and a CMHA site will 
collaborate to increase the availability of mental health and primary 
care services for persons with serious mental illness and co-occurring 
substance use disorders who are homeless. The evaluation of these 
collaborative efforts will advance knowledge on elements of the 
implementation process associated with establishment of a successful 
collaboration, such as partnering mechanisms, success of referral 
links, intensity of services, the effects of collaboration on client 
outcomes, and plans for sustainability.
    Data collection will be conducted over a 30-month period. In each 
community, both a process and an outcome evaluation will be conducted 
to address the following questions: How is the project being 
implemented? What are the identified collaboration mechanisms? What are 
the service/agency level outcomes? What are the system-level outcomes? 
What are the client-level outcomes? To what extent do the various 
collaboration strategies predict outcomes?
    To reduce burden and increase uniformity across the study sites, a 
common case study protocol will be used to guide the evaluation. 
Information for the service/agency and system level evaluations will be 
collected by staff from the central Evaluation Center (EC) during 
annual site visits and through activity logs. Common site visit 
protocols will dictate what data collection methods will be used. Site 
visitors will rely on focus groups and interviews to obtain information 
from project directors, local evaluators, project staff, and clients. 
Activity logs monitoring each community's efforts to implement 
collaboration strategies, will be completed by program administrators 
and submitted to the EC quarterly. Key outcomes to be examined at the 
service/agency level through these data collection methods include 
increased availability of mental health, substance abuse, specialty 
care, housing and services; increased access to primary care, mental 
health, and substance abuse services; more comprehensive assessment of 
and services for individual needs; increased integrated delivery of 
services; and increased engagement and retention in services. System-
level outcomes to be examined include increased cross-agency activity;

[[Page 5303]]

increased mental health capacity at Hch sites; less redundancy in data 
collection; and enhanced screening for multi-dimensional issues.
    The estimated response burden for this project is as follows:

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                                                                                         Burden/
                       Instrument                           Number of    Responses/     response    Total burden
                                                            responses    respondent      (Hrs.)         hours
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Administrative Interviews...............................            24             3           1.5           108
Evaluator Interviews....................................            12             3           1.0            36
Line Staff Interviews...................................            48             3           1.0           144
Consumer Focus Groups...................................            84             3           1.0           252
Other Key Informants....................................            48             3           1.0           144
Activity Logs...........................................            12            10           2.0           240
                                                         ---------------
    Total...............................................           228  ............  ............           924
3-yr. Annual Average....................................           228  ............  ............           308
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    A total of approximately 6,500 program participants are expected to 
be recruited from the 12 sites. Each site will collect GPRA data on 
these participants using the CMHS GPRA Core Client Outcome measures 
approved by the Office of Management and Budget under control number 
0930-0208, which cover such domains as drug and alcohol use, family and 
living conditions, education, employment, and income, crime and 
criminal justice status, and mental and physical health problems and 
treatment. To obtain information on client-level outcomes the central 
Evaluation Center will work with each site to develop methods for 
obtaining relevant material from the GPRA data. It is expected that 
client-level data will be submitted to the Evaluation Center via 
electronic means. The Evaluation Center will provide training and 
technical assistance to all sites on data submission procedures.
    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: January 27, 2003.
Richard Kopanda,
Executive Officer, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services 
Administration.
[FR Doc. 03-2392 Filed 1-31-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4162-20-P