[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]
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