[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 216 (Wednesday, November 7, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 55731-55733]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-24283]


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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 (SAMHSA) will publish periodic summaries of 
proposed projects. To request more information on the proposed projects 
or obtain a copy of the information collection plans, call the SAMHSA 
Reports Clearance Officer at 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.

[[Page 55732]]

Proposed Project: Data Resource Toolkit Protocol for the Crisis 
Counseling Assistance and Training Program (OMB No. 0930-0270)--
Reinstatement

    The SAMHSA Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) as part of an 
interagency agreement with the Federal Emergency Management Agency 
(FEMA) provides a toolkit to be used for the purposes of collecting 
data on the Crisis Counseling Assistance and Training Program (CCP). 
The CCP provides supplemental funding to states and territories for 
individual and community crisis intervention services after a 
presidentially declared disaster.
    The CCP has provided disaster mental health services to millions of 
disaster survivors since its inception, and, with more than 30 years of 
accumulated expertise, it has become an important model for federal 
response to a variety of catastrophic events. Recent CCP grants include 
programs in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Florida, Texas, 
Tennessee, California, Missouri, Louisiana, and West Virginia. These 
grants have helped survivors after disasters including Hurricanes 
Harvey, Maria, and Irma in 2017; wildfires, severe storms, flooding, 
and tornadoes in 2016 and 2017; and landslides and mudslides in 2016. 
CCPs address the short-term mental health needs of communities 
primarily through (a) outreach and public education, (b) individual and 
group counseling, and (c) referral. Outreach and public education serve 
primarily to normalize reactions and to engage people who may need 
further care. Crisis counseling assists survivors in coping with 
current stress and symptoms to return to pre-disaster functioning. 
Crisis counseling relies largely on ``active listening,'' and crisis 
counselors also provide psycho-education (especially about the nature 
of responses to trauma) and help clients build coping skills. Crisis 
counselors typically work with a single client once or a few times. 
Because crisis counseling is time-limited, referral is the third 
important function of CCPs. Counselors are expected to refer a survivor 
to formal treatment if he or she has developed a mental and/or 
substance use disorder or is having difficulty in coping with his or 
her disaster reactions.
    Data about services delivered and users of services will be 
collected throughout the program period. The data will be collected via 
the use of a toolkit that relies on standardized forms. At the program 
level, the data will be entered quickly and easily into a cumulative 
database mainly through mobile data entry or paper forms (depending on 
resource availability) to yield summary tables for quarterly and final 
reports for the program. Mobile data entry allows for the data to be 
uploaded and linked to a national database that houses data collected 
across CCPs. This database provides SAMHSA/CMHS and FEMA with a way of 
producing summary reports of services provided across all programs 
funded.
    The components of the toolkit are listed and described below:
     Encounter logs. These forms document all services 
provided. The CCP requires crisis counselors to complete these logs. 
There are three types of encounter logs: (1) Individual/Family Crisis 
Counseling Services Encounter Log, (2) Group Encounter Log, and (3) 
Weekly Tally Sheet.
    [cir] Individual/Family Crisis Counseling Services Encounter Log. 
Crisis counseling is defined as an interaction that lasts at least 15 
minutes and involves participant disclosure. This form is completed by 
the crisis counselor for each service recipient, defined as the person 
or people who actively participated in the session (that is, by 
participating in conversation), not someone who is merely present. The 
same form may be completed with other family or household members who 
are actively engaged in the visit. Information collected includes 
demographics, service characteristics, risk factors, event reactions, 
and referral data.
    [cir] Group Encounter Log. This form is used to collect data on 
either a group crisis counseling encounter or a group public education 
encounter. The crisis counselor indicates in a checkbox at the top the 
class of activities (that is, counseling or education). Information 
collected includes service characteristics, group identity and 
characteristics, and group activities.
    [cir] Weekly Tally Sheet. This form documents brief educational and 
supportive encounters not captured on any other form. Information 
collected includes service characteristics, daily tallies, and weekly 
totals for brief educational or supportive contacts and for material 
distribution with no or minimal interaction.
     Assessment and Referral Tools. These tools--one for adults 
and one for children and youth--provide descriptive information about 
intensive users of services, defined as all individuals receiving a 
third individual crisis counseling visit or those who are continuing to 
experience severe distress that may be affecting their ability to 
perform daily activities. This tool will typically be used beginning 3 
months after the disaster and will be completed by the crisis 
counselor.
     Participant Feedback Survey. These surveys are completed 
by and collected from a sample of service recipients, not every 
recipient. Sampling is done on a biannual basis at 6 months and 1 year 
after the disaster. Information collected includes satisfaction with 
services, perceived improvements in coping and functioning, types of 
exposure, and event reactions.
     Service Provider Feedback Form. These surveys are 
completed by and collected from the CCP service providers anonymously 
at 6-months and 1-year after the disaster. The survey will be coded on 
several program-level as well as worker-level variables. However, the 
program itself will be identified and shared with program management 
only if the number of individual workers who completed the survey was 
greater than 10.
    There are no changes to the Individual Encounter Log, Group 
Encounter Log, Weekly Tally, and the Assessment and Referral Tools 
since the last approval. Revisions include the addition of a gross 
annual household income question to the Participant Feedback Survey 
form. For the Service Provider Feedback Form, questions about different 
types of CCP training and their usefulness were updated to improve 
capturing training feedback. CMHS also added a new section to mobile 
technology and data entry, and the questions in this section were 
updated from the previous form where they were listed under a different 
section. Finally, CMHS has added questions related to the counselors' 
income and personal experience(s) with the disaster, as they are 
typically members of the affected community prior to employment by the 
CCP, and program leadership is responsible for monitoring the 
counselors' stress levels.
    In Table 1 are the estimates of the annualized burden hours.

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                                    Table 1--Annualized Hour Burden Estimates
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                                                     Number of     Responses per     Hours per      Total hour
                      Form                          respondents     respondent       response         burden
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Individual/Family Crisis Counseling Services                 600             196            0.08           9,408
 Encounter Log..................................
Group Encounter Log.............................             100              33            0.05             165
Weekly Tally Sheet..............................             600              52            0.15           4,680
Assessment and Referral Tools...................             600              14            0.17           1,428
Participant Feedback Form.......................           1,000               1            0.25             250
Service Provider Feedback Form..................             100               1            0.41              41
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Total.......................................           3,000  ..............  ..............          15,972
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    Send comments to Summer King, SAMHSA Reports Clearance Officer, 
5600 Fishers Lane, Room 15E57-B, Rockville, MD 20857 OR email her a 
copy at [email protected]. Written comments should be received 
by January 7, 2019.

Summer King,
Statistician.
[FR Doc. 2018-24283 Filed 11-6-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4162-20-P