[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 176 (Wednesday, September 11, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 73668-73669]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-20431]


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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 the 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 at (240) 276-0361.
    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: PEERS Harm Reduction Evaluation: Point-in-Time Harm 
Reduction (PiT HR) Survey

    Funded in FY 2022, the Harm Reduction (HR) Grant Program aims to 
support community-based overdose prevention programs, syringe services 
programs, and other harm reduction services. Funding is used to enhance 
overdose and other types of prevention activities to help control the 
spread of infectious diseases and the consequences of such diseases for 
individuals with, or at risk of developing substance use disorders 
(SUD), support distribution of FDA-approved overdose reversal 
medication to individuals at risk of overdose, build connections for 
individuals at risk for, or with, a SUD to overdose education, 
counseling, and health education, refer individuals to treatment for 
infectious diseases such as HIV, sexually transmitted infections 
(STIs), and viral hepatitis, and encourage such individuals to take 
steps to reduce the negative personal and public health impacts of 
substance use or misuse. As part of the Harm Reduction grant program 
evaluation, conducted through the Program Evaluation, Effectiveness, 
and Review Services (PEERS) contract, SAMHSA's Center for Substance 
Abuse Prevention (CSAP) is requesting approval from the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) to administer a Point-In-Time Harm 
Reduction (PiT HR) survey to better understand the program.
    The PiT HR survey will elicit information from participants of the 
Harm Reduction Grant Program grantees to assess the extent to which 
grantees have achieved CSAP's goals of strengthening harm reduction 
programs. Data from the survey will help CSAP better understand: (1) 
the socio-demographic and drug use characteristics of participants who 
receive HR services and supplies across the country; (2) the HR 
services and supplies participants received and unmet needs; and (3) 
the social-cultural and structural barriers to receiving HR services 
and supplies. This anonymous survey will allow for an assessment of 
whether HR programs are reaching high-risk and underserved populations 
and populations experiencing behavioral health disparities and will 
help guide improvements to the HR Grant Program. The data will be 
aggregated across grantee programs to provide CSAP with a national 
picture of the population receiving HR services and supplies, the 
services and supplies they access, and perceived barriers to ensure the 
HR Grant Program meets its goals. Grantees will be provided with brief 
grantee-level reports providing actionable information to inform and 
strengthen their services. The grantee reports will provide insight 
into the populations they serve, the extent to which their services 
reach the populations they've identified as priority populations, 
whether the program meets the needs of their participants, and what 
barriers remain to service access. These reports will inform the 
implementation of their programs and help them address gaps in service 
delivery. HR Program Grantees do not collect survey data from their

[[Page 73669]]

participants. The PiT HR Survey has been designed to answer questions 
that cannot be answered with existing data with minimal burden on 
grantees and respondents. It strengthens the evaluation by including 
participant voice.
    Most HR programs will administer the survey electronically on a 
tablet using the web-based survey. Tablets will be provided to the harm 
reduction grantees for this purpose during the survey administration 
period. The tablets will include an offline data collection function, 
which utilizes an app that runs directly from the tablet and collects 
and securely stores data on the tablet until or unless the tablet is 
connected to Wi-Fi. Once the tablet is connected to Wi-Fi, stored 
surveys are automatically uploaded to a secure online database and are 
no longer accessible on the tablet. Utilizing the offline data 
collection functions ensures that programs can participate even if they 
do not have stable Wi-Fi connections. In addition, the audio-enabled 
feature will assist participants who want to take the survey but have 
vision difficulties or lower literacy levels without requiring staff to 
read the survey questions to them. Once uploaded, survey data will be 
easily accessible by the PEERS evaluation staff who have access to the 
project survey system, allowing staff to provide ongoing data quality 
monitoring throughout the process. Grantees will receive financial 
compensation to support their efforts to recruit and administer the 
survey.
    A pen-and-paper version of the PiT HR Survey will be available to 
grantees who would prefer this approach when conducting outreach in the 
community where the use of the tablets may raise staff safety risks. 
Programs that provide outreach services may elect to use the pen-and-
paper or the tablet version of the survey depending on their 
preferences and the communities they serve. The pen-and-paper version 
of the survey would be read aloud by staff to address literacy 
concerns. Completed paper surveys will be stored in locked cabinets in 
the HR Grantee Program offices and mailed via certified mail to the 
PEERS office. PEERS will immediately store the paper survey in locked 
cabinets, accessible only to the PEERS evaluation team. The raw data 
will be entered into SPSS and stored on password-protected computers 
requiring multifactor authentication. No person outside of the PEERS 
evaluation team will have access to the data. All data will be closely 
safeguarded, and no institutional or individual identifiers will be 
used in reports. Only aggregated data will be reported. SAMHSA and its 
contractors will not receive identifiable participant records.
    Those who participate in the survey will receive a $25 Visa gift 
card to compensate them for the 25-minute duration of the PiT HR 
Survey, which includes time for recruitment, consent, survey 
completion, and gift card receipt. The primary consequence of not 
collecting the PiT HR survey data is that CSAP would not have current 
information to understand (1) whether the target populations of the 
Harm Reduction Grant Program are being reached; (2) whether the service 
needs of the target populations are being met; and (3) the barriers 
target populations face in utilizing HR services to inform future grant 
programs. No other HR evaluation component brings in the often-
overlooked voice of the recipients of HR services and supplies.
    The PiT HR Survey is cross-sectional, therefore the data will be 
collected only once from any survey participant. Individual grantees 
vary from small entities to large provider organizations. Every effort 
has been made to minimize the number of survey items asked of 
respondents down to the least number of items necessary to accomplish 
the objectives described within. As a result, there is no significant 
impact on small entities.

Estimated Total Burden for Harm Reduction Point-in-Time Data Collection

    The estimates in this table reflect the maximum annual burden for 
the proposed PiT HR Survey at the 25 HR grantee sites funded through 
May 2025. These estimates are based on informal pilot testing of the 
instrument among PEERS staff.

                                                      Table 1--Estimates of Annualized Hour Burden
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                                                                        Responses
               SAMHSA tool                   Number of respondents         per      Total number  Burden hours  Total burden   Hourly wage   Total hour
                                                                       respondent   of responses  per response      hours          \1\          cost
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PiT HR Survey...........................  25 sites * 50 participants            1         1,250         0.417        521.25        $34.27    $17,863.24
                                           = 1,250.
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\1\ The average hourly wage for a US worker in January 2024 is $34.27 based on US Bureau of Labor statistics. (https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm).

    Send comments to SAMHSA Reports Clearance Officer, 5600 Fisher 
Lane, Room 15E57A, Rockville, MD 20852 OR email him a copy at 
[email protected]. Written comments should be received by 
November 12, 2024.

Alicia Broadus,
Public Health Advisor.
[FR Doc. 2024-20431 Filed 9-10-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4162-20-P