[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 40 (Tuesday, March 1, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 10644-10645]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-04419]
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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: Now Is the Time (NITT)--Minority Fellowship Program (MFP)
Evaluation--New
SAMHSA is conducting a national evaluation of the Now is the Time
(NITT) initiative, which includes separate programs--the Minority
Fellowship Program--Youth (MFP-Y), the Minority Fellowship Program--
Addiction Counselors (MFP-AC), Project AWARE (Advancing Wellness and
Resilience in Education)--State Educational Agency, and Healthy
Transitions. These programs are united by their focus on capacity
building, system change, and workforce development.
The NITT-MFP (Youth and Addiction Counselors) programs, which are
the focus of this data collection, represent a response to the fourth
component of President Obama's NITT Initiative: Increasing access to
mental health/behavioral health services. The purpose of the NITT-MFP
programs is to improve behavioral health care outcomes for underserved
racially and ethnically diverse populations by increasing the number of
culturally competent master's level behavioral health professionals and
addiction counselors serving children, adolescents, and populations in
transition to adulthood (ages 16-25) in an effort to increase access
to, and quality of, behavioral health care for these age groups. The
NITT-MFP--Youth program funded five grantees to each support up to 48
master's level fellows per year committed to addressing the behavioral
health needs of at risk children, adolescents, and transition-age youth
(ages 16-25). The NITT-MFP--Addiction Counselors program funded two
grantees to each support up to 30 master's level fellows per year in
their final year of addiction counseling university programs, with a
focus on providing culturally sensitive addiction counseling to
underserved youth in the 16-25 age group.
The NITT-MFP evaluation is designed to assess the level of success
of the grantees in meeting the programs' goals and identify the factors
that contribute to differences among grantees in levels of success. The
evaluation includes both process and outcome evaluation components and
will be supported by the data collection efforts described below. The
information to be
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collected is necessary to (a) assess the effectiveness of the grantees'
program recruitment strategies, (b) describe the services that the
programs offer, and (c) assess whether NITT-MFP is meeting its goal of
increasing the skilled workforce by increasing the number of behavioral
health providers and addiction counselors providing services to
underserved children, adolescents, and transition-age youth,
particularly among racially/ethnically diverse populations.
About 4 to 5 months after completion of their fellowship, a subset
of fellow alumni will be asked to participate in the NITT-MFP Fellow
Interview. These telephone interviews will collect detailed qualitative
information on fellows' experiences that are not possible to collect in
a survey. The interview is timed to collect fellows' impressions of
their fellowship experiences before too much time has passed, as well
as their initial labor market outcomes. The information collected will
be used to assess the NITT-MFP program factors associated with
employment and other post-fellowship outcomes. The interviewees will be
asked to describe (1) their program, how they learned about it, and
what led them to apply; (2) the effects of the program on their
interest in working with at risk children, adolescents, and transition
age youth from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds (and for
MFP-AC fellows, in the area of addiction counseling); (3) whether the
program improved their understanding of and ability to provide
culturally competent services; (4) whether they completed their
fellowship and the effects of the stipend on their education and
career; (5) their current employment setting, and, if in behavior
health services, the characteristics of their client population; (6)
the role that their fellowship played in their job interests and job
search; and (7) their satisfaction with the fellowship program and
assessment of its impact on their career and professional activities. A
maximum of 66 fellow alumni are expected to complete the NITT-MFP
Fellow Interview per year; respondents will complete the telephone
interview one time.
Annualized Burden Hours
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Number of Responses per Total number of Hours per Total burden
Instrument respondents respondent responses response hours
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NITT-MFP Fellow Interview......................................... 66 1 66 1 66
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Written comments and recommendations concerning the proposed
information collection should be sent by March 31, 2016 to the SAMHSA
Desk Officer at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs,
Office of Management and Budget (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. 2016-04419 Filed 2-29-16; 8:45 am]
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