[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 196 (Thursday, October 9, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 61088-61089]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-24111]


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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, SAMHSA will publish a summary of information 
collection requests under the Office of Management and Budget (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 (240) 276-1243.

Project: Identifying Core Competencies of Peer Workers in Behavioral 
Health Services (Behavioral Health Services) --NEW

    SAMHSA's Center for Mental Health Services' project, Bringing 
Recovery Supports to Scale Technical Assistance Center Strategy (BRSS 
TACS) is requesting OMB's approval for a data collection project 
entitled, ``Identifying Core Competencies of Peer Workers in Behavioral 
Health Services.'' The BRSS TACS team intends to use two instruments to 
collect original data to inform the ongoing development of core 
competencies for peer workers in behavioral health care services. These 
instruments are:

 Core Competencies Survey with Peer Workers
 Telephone Interview of Peer Workers

    The primary purpose for this information is to appraise the 
importance of specific competencies to the work of peer workers who are 
currently employed in behavioral health settings. The Core Competencies 
Survey will collect peer workers' ratings of the importance of 
different competencies to their work. The Telephone Interview of Peer 
Workers will collect peer workers' experiences with and opinions about 
the competencies on the survey. They will also be asked how they might 
use the competencies in their work. The Core Competencies Survey and 
the Telephone Interview are seen as critical to the development of core 
competencies for peer workers because they integrate the perspective of 
people who are currently employed as peer workers in the behavioral 
health care workforce and have been judged as competent by another 
colleague.
    While peer workers have become critical components of recovery-
oriented systems, paid peer positions and roles are relatively new 
additions to the behavioral health workforce. There are basic questions 
about how to define these roles. There are additional uncertainties 
about how best to prepare people in recovery for the role of peer 
worker and how to supervise and evaluate the job performance of peer 
workers. Developing a set of core competencies is an important step in 
responding to these questions and may be a valuable activity in 
expanding peer roles in behavioral health.
    Although training programs for peer workers in the behavioral 
health system have existed for over a decade, there have been no 
attempts to standardize the content or the models of training. To date, 
no national consensus defines standards for peer worker training 
programs. Training programs differ in length, ranging from 30 to 105 
hours of face-to-face training and vary widely in the knowledge and 
skills that they teach trainees (SAMHSA, 2012).
    The Core Competency Project will describe the foundational 
knowledge, skills, and attitudes required by peer workers to perform 
their roles in a wide variety of behavioral health programs and 
services. Peer-provided recovery support services typically involve 
providing social support, linking people to community resources, 
assisting with decision-making activities, and a host of educational 
and recreational activities (CSAT, 2009; SAMHSA, 2012). In addition, 
peer workers facilitate educational and support groups and advocate for 
service improvements. SAMHSA defines peer-provided recovery support as, 
``a set of non-clinical, peer-based activities that engage, educate and 
support an individual successfully to make life changes necessary to 
recover from disabling mental illness and/or substance use disorder 
conditions'' (CSAT, 2009). While some peer workers are performing 
advanced or specialized competencies within the behavioral health 
field, the core competencies described will include the foundational 
competencies required by all peer workers working in a variety of 
environments and with a diversity of people.
    It is critical to communicate to the behavioral health field and 
behavioral health authorities about the foundational knowledge, skills, 
and attitudes needed by peer workers. Because of the anticipated 
continued demand for peers in the behavioral health workforce, SAMHSA 
has prioritized the development of peer-delivered recovery support 
services across mental health and substance use disorder services. In 
an effort to deliver services of uniformly high quality, the core 
competencies of peer workers will be described so that states and other 
credentialing bodies will be able to establish uniform standards for 
peer workers.
    In addition, clear descriptions of core competencies will assist 
behavioral health authorities with their strategic workforce planning 
efforts. The description of core competencies will inform services and 
peer workforce training programs of the basic requirements needed by 
peer workers in behavioral health services. The competencies will 
provide guidance to behavioral health programs when writing job 
descriptions and performances evaluations. In many communities, job 
descriptions lack uniformity and specificity and do not reflect 
accurately the focus of peer-provided recovery support services.
    The results of these surveys will contribute to the creation of 
competency descriptions that will provide guidance to organizations, 
programs, states, and regions to strengthen their peer workforce 
development efforts. These core competencies will inform training 
programs and state certification entities about the essential skills, 
knowledge, and attitudes needed by peer workers in a range of roles in 
behavioral health services. Currently, 33 states offer certification 
for their peer workers and a growing number of states use Medicaid 
funds to reimburse for peer support services (Daniels et al., 2014). 
Despite the growth of the behavioral health peer workforce; there are 
inconsistencies in the requirements for these certifications across 
different states.
    For behavioral health organizations and programs, core competencies 
will provide guidance for job descriptions for peer workers and improve 
the recruitment of potential workers by providing fair and unbiased 
criteria for hiring and making sure everyone is assessed against the 
same framework. Core competency descriptions have the potential to 
strengthen the workforce through improved training and preparation of 
peer workers. Behavioral health programs and organizations can

[[Page 61089]]

use the core competencies to improve performance evaluations by 
providing a framework to discuss and assess performance.
    Core competencies have the potential to contribute to a ``culture 
of competence'' in which peer workers could use the competencies to 
engage in accurate self-assessment and seek out experiences to improve 
their competencies. For peer workers, core competencies could help to 
clarify what is expected in their role and will assist them in 
assessing their own strengths and limitations as a provider of peer 
support.
    At this time, SAMHSA is requesting approval to use these two forms. 
The forms are described here:
    1. Peer Worker Telephone Interviews: Peer worker interviews will be 
conducted by telephone with 20 peer workers to gather descriptive 
details about the interviewees' use of the core competencies included 
in the quantitative surveys, their opinions about specific 
competencies, and their beliefs about the usefulness of articulating 
core competencies for their peer worker roles. Qualitative interviews 
may also produce examples of how peer workers use specific 
competencies.
    The information gathered by the Core Competencies Survey and the 
Peer Worker Telephone Interview will help SAMHSA guide the behavioral 
health field with workforce development efforts related to peer 
workers. This information is crucial to providing technical assistance 
to states, behavioral health organizations, peer-run and recovery 
community organizations, and organizations and institutions that 
provide training to peer workers in behavioral health.
    2. Core Competencies Survey: The Core Competencies Survey was 
developed through an extensive process of literature reviews, synthesis 
of the competencies, expert panel review, and consensus-building 
activities. The Core Competencies Survey has 61 items and uses a 5-
point Likert scale from 1-unimportant to 5-very important. The items on 
the survey are specific competencies that were developed by the BRSS 
TACS team, their partners, and experts in peer-provided services in 
behavioral health. Respondents to the Core Competencies Survey will 
also complete a section on demographic characteristics of the 
participant's gender, age, race/ethnicity, geographic location, level 
of education, monthly income, length of time as a peer worker, current 
field of employment, and certification status. Demographic data will be 
used to describe the survey respondents. The response to the current 
field of employment questions will be used to categorize the respondent 
as working primarily in addiction services, mental health services, or 
services for people with co-occurring disorders, a variable that will 
be included in specific analyses of the data.
    The chart below summarizes the annualized burden for this project.

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                                     Number of     Responses per   Total number      Hours per     Total annual
       Type of respondent           respondents     respondent     of responses      response      burden hours
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Peer workers for interview......              20               1              20               1              20
Peer workers for survey.........             100               1             100               1             100
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    Total.......................             120  ..............             120  ..............             120
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    Written comments and recommendations concerning the proposed 
information collection should be sent by November 10, 2014 to the 
SAMHSA Desk Officer at the Office of Information and Regulatory 
Affairs, OMB. To ensure timely receipt of comments, and to avoid 
potential delays in OMB's receipt and processing of mail sent through 
the U.S. Postal Service, commenters are encouraged to submit their 
comments to OMB via email to: [email protected]. Although 
commenters are encouraged to send their comments via email, commenters 
may also fax their comments to: 202-395-7285. Commenters may also mail 
them to: Office of Management and Budget, Office of Information and 
Regulatory Affairs, New Executive Office Building, Room 10102, 
Washington, DC 20503.

Summer King,
Statistician.
[FR Doc. 2014-24111 Filed 10-8-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4162-20-P