[Federal Register: August 22, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 162)]
[Notices]
[Page 47053-47055]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr22au07-122]
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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, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration (SAMHSA) will publish a summary of information
collection requests under 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: Independent Evaluation of the Community Mental Health Services
Block Grant Program--NEW
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
(SAMHSA), the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) administers the
Community Mental Health Services Block Grant (CMHS BG). The Community
Mental Health Services Block Grant was funded by Congress to develop
community-based systems of care for adults with serious mental illness
(SMI) and children with severe emotional disorders (SED), and has been
the largest Federal program dedicated to improving community mental
health services. States have latitude in determining how to spend their
funds to support services for adults with SMI and children with SED.
The only requirements outlined in the authorizing legislation for State
receipt of CMHS BG funds are provisions to increase children's
services, create a State mental health planning council, and to develop
a State mental health plan to be submitted to the Secretary of Health
and Human Services (HHS). The State mental health planning council is
to comprise various State constituents including providers,
administrators, and mental health services consumers. Each State plan
must:
Provide for the establishment and implementation of an
organized community-based system of care for individuals with mental
illness.
Estimate the incidence and prevalence of adults with SMI
and children with SED within the State.
Provide for a system of integrated services appropriate
for the multiple needs of children.
Provide for outreach to and services for rural and
homeless populations.
Describe the financial and other resources necessary to
implement the plan and describe how the CMHS BG funds are to be spent.
In addition, Congress included a maintenance-of-effort (MOE)
requirement that a State's expenditures for community mental health
services be no less than the average spent in the two preceding fiscal
years.
The CMHS BG received an adequate rating on the OMB PART in 2003.
Clearly in the follow up period to that assessment, one of the critical
areas that must be addressed is the expectation that an independent and
objective evaluation of the program is to be carried out initially and
at regular intervals. In addition, the program evaluation has been
designed to be of high quality, sufficient scope and unbiased (with
appropriate documentation for each of these elements). In fact it is in
addressing an evaluation of the program that critical elements of
accountability and program performance are also identified and
initially assessed. The rigor of the evaluation is seen in how it
addresses the effectiveness of the program's impact with regard to its
mission and long term goals. By legislative design the CMHS BG Program
has previously focused on legislative compliance. Now it addresses the
impact of the program nationally, over time, with a view to coming to
terms with identified program deficiencies and the corresponding impact
of proposed changes.
In this evaluation, a multi-method evaluation approach is being
used to examine Federal and State performance with regard to the CMHS
BG and its identified goals. This approach emphasizes a qualitative and
quantitative examination of both the CMHS BG process (e.g., activities
and outputs in the logic model) and system-level outcomes whereby
Federal and State stakeholder perspectives on the CMHS BG, as captured
through semi-structured interviews and surveys, are
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corroborated and compared to the considerable amount of already-
collected source documents provided by States and CMHS (e.g., State
plans, implementation reports, review summaries and monitoring site
visit reports). More specifically, data collection will be conducted
using four primary strategies: interviews and surveys of key
stakeholders, data abstraction from source documents (i.e., CMHS BG
applications and implementation reports), secondary data analysis
(e.g., analysis of Uniform Reporting System (URS) data and National
Outcome Measures (NOMS), and case studies highlighting important themes
and issues relating to State CMHS BG implementation.
This evaluation is also seeking to measure the effectiveness of the
CMHS BG through a variety of infrastructure indicators and NOMS
measures. Infrastructure refers to the resources, systems, and policies
that support the nation's public mental health service delivery system,
and is a potential contributor to significant State behavioral health
system outcomes. Examples of infrastructure include staff training,
consumer involvement in the State mental health system, policy changes,
and service availability. Outcomes related to infrastructure and the
NOMS were included in the program logic model that has been developed
and are expected to be examined through the data collection strategies
listed above.
Infrastructure indicators that can be measured in this evaluation,
for which some form of data can be collected include:
Range of available services within a State.
Capacity (No. of persons served).
Specialized services (such as co-occurring disorders).
Number of persons served by evidence-based practices
(EBPs).
Staff credentialing (identify patterns).
Program accreditation (as a quality marker).
Staff/workforce development (TA & training available for
State staff).
Connections with other agencies (e.g., MOUs, joint
funding, joint appointments).
Policy changes initiated.
Policy changes completed.
Consumer involvement.
Two data collection strategies will be used for this evaluation:
Two (2) open-ended interviews and four (4) Web-based surveys.
Interviews will be conducted with Federal staff involved in the
administration of the CMHS BG and State staff from all States and
Territories involved in their State's implementation of the CMHS BG
program. The two interview guides, one for Federal staff and one for
State staff, range from 54 to 94 open-ended questions. The Federal
staff interview is expected to take one hour to complete while the
State staff interview is expected to take two hours on average to
complete, and can be done over two sessions. Because of the relatively
small number of Federal and State staff participating in the
evaluation, interviews are an optimal data collection strategy to
gather the extensive qualitative data needed for the evaluation while
minimizing reporting burden. Federal staff stakeholders will be
interviewed in person due to their close proximity to the interviewers
and State staff stakeholder interviews will be conducted via conference
call. State Mental Health Agency (SMHA) Commissioners will select those
State staff who are knowledgeable about the CMHS BG for participation
in the interviews. It is anticipated that, at a minimum, a State
Planner, State Data Analyst, and the SMHA Commissioner will
participate.
The four (4) Web-based surveys will be distributed nationally to
State Planning Council Chairs, State Planning Council Members, CMHS BG
Regional Reviewers, and CMHS BG Monitoring Site Visitors. The Web-based
surveys will be tailored so that each of the four different stakeholder
groups will receive survey questions designed to capture their specific
knowledge of and experience with the CMHS BG. It is estimated that any
one individual stakeholder will require one hour to complete their own
survey, which contains a range of 22 to 42 mostly fill-in-the blank
type questions. Each member of the four major stakeholder groups will
submit their responses to the survey online over a three-week period.
Table 1 summarizes the estimate of the total time burden to Federal
and State staff stakeholders resulting from the interviews. Table 2
summarizes the estimate of the total time burden to Planning Council
members, Regional Reviewers, and Monitoring Site Visitors resulting
from completion of the web-based surveys. Table 3 summarizes the total
reporting burden for all data collection strategies.
Table 1.--Estimated Reporting Burden of Interviews
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Number of Average hours Estimated total
Respondent respondents per interview burden (hours)
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State Mental Health Agency Commissioner................... 59 3.5 206.5
State Planners............................................ 59 3.5 206.5
State Data Analysts....................................... 59 3.5 206.5
Federal CMHS Block Grant Staff............................ 20 1 20
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Total Burden.......................................... 197 ................ 639.5
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Table 2.--Estimated Reporting Burden of Web-Based Surveys
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Number of Average hours Estimated total
Respondent respondents per survey burden (hours)
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Planning Council Members.................................. 2000 1 2000
Regional Block Grant Reviewers............................ 35 1 35
Monitoring Site Visitors.................................. 28 1 28
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Total Burden.......................................... 2,063 ................ 2,063
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Table 3.--Estimated Reporting Burden of All Data Collection Strategies
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Estimated
Data collection strategy total burden
(hours)
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Interviews............................................... 639.5
Web-based Surveys........................................ 2,063
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Total Burden......................................... 2,702.5
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Written comments and recommendations concerning the proposed
information collection should be sent by September 21, 2007 to: SAMHSA
Desk Officer, Human Resources and Housing Branch, Office of Management
and Budget, New Executive Office Building, Room 10235, Washington, DC
20503; due to potential delays in OMB's receipt and processing of mail
sent through the U.S. Postal Service, respondents are encouraged to
submit comments by fax to: 202-395-6974.
Dated: August 13, 2007.
Elaine Parry,
Acting Director, Office of Program Services.
[FR Doc. E7-16537 Filed 8-21-07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4162-20-P