[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 87 (Friday, May 6, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 24102-24103]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-9059]


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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: Call Monitoring of National Suicide Prevention 
Lifeline Form--NEW

    The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's 
(SAMHSA), Center for Mental Health Services has funded a National 
Suicide Prevention Lifeline Network, consisting of a single toll-free 
telephone number that routes calls from anywhere in the United States 
to a network of local crisis centers. In turn, the local centers link 
callers to local emergency, mental health, and social service 
resources.
    To ensure quality, the vast majority of crisis centers conduct on-
site monitoring of selected calls by supervisors or trainers using 
unobtrusive listening devices. To monitor the quality of calls and to 
inform the development of training for networked crisis centers, the 
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline proposes to remotely monitor calls 
routed to seven crisis centers during the shifts of consenting staff. 
The procedure will be anonymous, in that neither staff nor callers will 
be identified on the Call Monitoring Form. The monitor, a trained 
crisis worker, will code the type of problem presented by the caller, 
the elements of a suicide risk assessment that are completed by the 
crisis worker, as well as what action plan is developed with and/or 
what referral(s) are provided to the caller. No centers will be 
identified in reports.
    During the shifts of consenting crisis staff, a recording will 
inform callers that some calls may be monitored for quality assurance 
purposes. Previous comparisons of matched centers that did and did not 
play the recording found no difference in hang-up rates before the 
calls were answered or within the first 15 seconds of the calls.
    The seven centers to be monitored will be selected based on the 
geographic regions(s) they serve. Once a center has agreed to 
participate, the crisis workers will be provided an Informed Consent 
Form describing the purpose and procedures of the monitoring process 
and inviting them to participate. The Form also informs workers that 
they are free to participate or not, that they may withdraw their 
acceptance to participate at any time, and that if they choose not to 
participate, no calls during their shift will be monitored.
    A total of 180 calls will be monitored during the first 5-month 
period. One year later, an additional 360 calls will be monitored, 
yielding a total of 540 monitored calls.
    The estimated annual response burden to collect this information is 
as follows:

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                                                                                      Burden/
                   Instrument                        Number of      Responses/       response      Annual burden
                                                    respondents     respondent        (hours)         (hours)
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Informed Consent Form...........................             180               1             .07              13
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline--Call                   180               3             .33             178
 Monitoring Form................................
                                                 -----------------
    Total.......................................             180  ..............  ..............             191
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[[Page 24103]]

    Send comments to Summer King, SAMHSA Reports Clearance Officer, 
Room 7-1045, 1 Choke Cherry Road, Rockville, MD 20850. Written comments 
should be received by July 5, 2005.

    Dated: April 29, 2005.
Anna Marsh,
Executive Officer, SAMHSA.
[FR Doc. 05-9059 Filed 5-5-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4162-20-P