[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 74 (Friday, April 16, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 20634-20635]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-8638]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration


Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for OMB 
Review; Comment Request

    Periodically, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services 
Administration (SAMHSA) will publish a summary of information 
collection requests under OMB review, in compliance with the Paperwork 
Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35). To request a copy of these 
documents, call the SAMHSA Reports Clearance Officer on (301) 443-7978.
    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 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 national implementation of data collection in 
similar programs. 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 during an initial 30-day period. Providers will use 
the Individual Data Collection Form to record information about client 
characteristics for the time of first contact and during the 30-day 
period; the Individual Intervention and Linkage Form will be completed 
to capture information specific to referrals and receipt of services; 
and the 3-Month Follow-up Form will be completed three months after the 
end of the initial data collection period to provide more longitudinal 
information on participant status. No client-identified information 
will be submitted. After each period of data collection, local 
providers will be contacted by telephone to obtain feedback on the 
structure and utility of the data collection instruments, the process 
of collecting and reporting the data, and the overall burden associated 
with the data collection and submission effort. Projected response 
burden for the project is summarized in the table below.

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                                                     Estimated                    Average burden
                                                     number of     Responses per     hours per     Total annual
                                                    respondents     respondent       response      burden hours
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Individual Data Collection Form.................              30              20             .17             102
Individual Intervention and Linkage Form........              30              20             .17             102
3-Month Follow-up Form..........................              30              20             .06              36
Provider Survey.................................              30               2             .50              30
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    Total.......................................  ..............  ..............  ..............             270
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    Written comments and recommendations concerning the proposed 
information collection should be sent by May 17, 2004 to: SAMHSA Desk 
Officer, Human Resources and Housing Branch, Office of Management and 
Budget, New Executive Office Building, Room 10235, Washington, DC 
20503; due to potential delays in OMB's receipt and processing of mail 
sent through the U.S. Postal Service, respondents are encouraged to 
submit comments by fax to: 202-395-6974.


[[Page 20635]]


    Dated: April 8, 2004.
Anna Marsh,
Executive Officer, SAMHSA.
[FR Doc. 04-8638 Filed 4-15-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4162-20-P