[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 48 (Tuesday, March 14, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 13641-13642]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-04914]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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 (SAMHSA) 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 (240) 276-1243.
    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: Cooperative Agreements To Benefit Homeless 
Individuals (CABHI) Evaluation Client & Stakeholder Surveys (OMB No. 
0930-0320)--Revision

    SAMHSA is conducting a cross-site evaluation of the FY2016 cohort 
of the CABHI grant program. The CABHI Evaluation builds on a previous 
evaluation of SAMHSA's 2009-2012 homeless services grant programs 
(i.e., Grants for the Benefit of Homeless Individuals, Services in 
Supportive Housing, and CABHI), under which the approved client and 
stakeholder data collection tools were developed and implemented. 
SAMHSA is requesting approval from OMB to revise the burden inventory, 
which has been calculated based on the number of FY2016 CABHI grantees 
and potential future cohorts of grantees to be awarded in FY2017, and 
to revise some of the measures used on current tools. This collection 
was previously known as the Cross-Site Evaluation for the Grants for 
the Benefit of Homeless Individuals (GBHI), but is now known as the 
CABHI Evaluation Client & Stakeholder Surveys.
    In 2016, SAMHSA awarded 30 CABHI grants across three levels: States 
(up to $1.5 million per year), local governments (up to $800,000 per 
year), and communities (up to $400,000 per year). The grantees are 
united by the goal of enhancing and expanding infrastructure and 
capacity for mental health and substance abuse treatment and related 
support services for individuals experiencing chronic homelessness or 
veterans, families, or youth experiencing homelessness as a result of 
these conditions. This is accomplished through the provision of 
permanent supportive housing, behavioral health treatment, and recovery 
support services, and enrollment in health insurance, Medicaid, or 
other mainstream benefit programs. Potential grantees awarded in FY2017 
will have the same funding options and grant requirements.
    The primary task of the CABHI evaluation is to conduct a 
comprehensive process and outcome evaluation, addressing questions 
related to the implementation of the CABHI grant projects and the 
extent to which they were able to meet the program's goals. Process 
evaluation primarily represents what is done to and for the client 
(e.g., services provided); this aspect of the evaluation will also 
include a focus on structure, or the resources available in the service 
delivery system, which represent the capacity to deliver quality care, 
but not the care itself. The outcome evaluation will focus on outputs, 
which are the most immediate or proximal results of project activities 
(e.g., changes in partner collaboration, the number of clients enrolled 
in mainstream benefits), and client outcomes, particularly those 
related to behavioral health and homelessness and housing instability. 
Data collection efforts that will support the evaluation are described 
below.
    The Client Interview--Baseline and the Client Interview--6-Month 
Follow-up have been developed to provide

[[Page 13642]]

descriptive information about clients, and assess changes in client 
outcomes and their association with project characteristics. The tools 
were developed based on review of the literature and consultation with 
a panel of national experts, grantees, and SAMHSA. The tools were 
successfully used with over 7,000 clients during the previous 
evaluation of SAMHSA's Homeless programs.
    The Client Interview is comprised of questions (unique from 
SAMHSA's Government Performance and Results Act [GPRA] client-level 
tool) that measure the outcomes of interest and subpopulations of 
focus: Homelessness, housing, treatment history, trauma symptoms, 
housing and treatment choice, burden and satisfaction, and criminal 
justice involvement. For the CABHI Evaluation, the Client Interview 
Baseline and 6-Month Follow-up have been updated to (1) reflect changes 
to the GPRA client-level tool which allowed the questions on military 
service to be removed, (2) align with the newest version of the 
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), (3) remove 
the Readiness to Change measure, and (4) add detailed housing and 
homelessness questions. For the 6-Month Follow-up only, questions 
documenting services and evidence based practices received were added 
to improve data on client service receipt. Immediately following the 
SAMHSA-required administration of the GPRA client-level tools, which 
are completed by enrolled clients for each grantee project at baseline 
and 6-month follow-up, the paper and pencil Client Interview will be 
administered face-to-face by the GPRA interviewer. Questions regarding 
perception of care and treatment coercion will be self-administered by 
participating clients and returned to the interviewer in a sealed 
envelope to be included in the full package mailed to the evaluation 
coordinating center. Client participation is voluntary; gift card 
incentives will be given at baseline worth a $15 value and at 6-month 
follow-up worth a $30 value. Clients will be assigned unique 
identifiers by local projects; responses will be recorded on a paper 
and pencil answer sheet, mailed by the grantee project to the 
evaluation coordinating center, and scanned into a secure dataset. This 
process will eliminate the need for data entry, thereby reducing cost 
and potential for data entry error, and ensuring privacy for evaluation 
data.
    The Stakeholder Survey will be conducted with CABHI project 
stakeholders and partners via a web survey to assess the types of 
stakeholder partnerships involved in the CABHI projects, the services 
provided, and the effectiveness of implementation and collaboration in 
the CABHI projects. For the CABHI Evaluation, the survey has been 
divided into three waves so that questions are relevant to the current 
phase of grant implementation (e.g., wave 1 will be administered in 
year 1 of the project). Also, a section on healthcare services was 
added and the current section on collaboration was expanded to include 
new measures on collaboration. One wave of the survey will be 
administered each year of the three year grants. Each survey respondent 
will be issued a username and password to login to and complete the 
secure web-based survey. The web-based survey format will reduce burden 
on the respondent and minimize potential for measurement error.
    Annual burden has increased from 4,006 to 5,098 hours per year as 
the response burden times have been revised to reflect real-world 
experience during the Homeless Programs evaluation and the number of 
respondents has been increased for the Stakeholder Survey.

                                             Annualized Burden Hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                     Number of     Responses per   Total number      Hours per     Total burden
       Instrument/activity          respondents     respondent     of responses      response          hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Baseline data collection                   5,827               1           5,827            0.42           2,447
 (Clients)......................
6-month follow-up data                     4,662               1           4,662             0.5           2,331
 collection (Clients)...........
                                 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Client Subtotal.............       \b\ 5,827  ..............          10,489  ..............           4,778
Stakeholder Survey..............             780               1             780            0.41             320
                                 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Total...................       \b\ 6,607  ..............          11,269  ..............           5,098
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\a\ Total respondent cost is calculated as hourly wage x time spent on survey x total number of responses.
\b\ Estimated number of total unique respondents.

    Send comments to Summer King, SAMHSA Reports Clearance Officer, 
5600 Fishers Lane, Room 15E57-B, Rockville, MD 20857 OR email a copy to 
[email protected]. Written comments should be received by May 
15, 2017.

Summer King,
Statistician.
[FR Doc. 2017-04914 Filed 3-13-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4162-20-P