Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request, 61088-61089 [2014-24111]
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Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 196 / Thursday, October 9, 2014 / Notices
(Catalogue of Federal Domestic Assistance
Program Nos. 93.306, Comparative Medicine;
93.333, Clinical Research, 93.306, 93.333,
93.337, 93.393–93.396, 93.837–93.844,
93.846–93.878, 93.892, 93.893, National
Institutes of Health, HHS)
Dated: October 3, 2014.
Carolyn Baum,
Program Analyst, Office of Federal Advisory
Committee Policy.
[FR Doc. 2014–24059 Filed 10–8–14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4140–01–P
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND
HUMAN SERVICES
Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration
Agency Information Collection
Activities: Submission for OMB
Review; Comment Request
mstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
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
VerDate Sep<11>2014
17:56 Oct 08, 2014
Jkt 235001
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 nonclinical, 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.
PO 00000
Frm 00042
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
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 peerdelivered 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 peerprovided 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
E:\FR\FM\09OCN1.SGM
09OCN1
61089
Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 196 / Thursday, October 9, 2014 / Notices
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 1Number of
respondents
Type of respondent
Responses
per
respondent
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 cooccurring disorders, a variable that will
be included in specific analyses of the
data.
The chart below summarizes the
annualized burden for this project.
Total number
of responses
Total annual
burden
hours
Hours per
response
Peer workers for interview ...................................................
Peer workers for survey .......................................................
20
100
1
1
20
100
1
1
20
100
Total ..............................................................................
120
........................
120
........................
120
mstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
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:
OIRA_Submission@omb.eop.gov.
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]
BILLING CODE 4162–20–P
VerDate Sep<11>2014
17:56 Oct 08, 2014
Jkt 235001
DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND
SECURITY
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Services
[OMB Control Number 1615–0106]
Agency Information Collection
Activities: Petition for Qualifying
Family Member of a U–1
Nonimmigrant, Form I–929; Extension,
Without Change, of a Currently
Approved Collection
ACTION:
60-day notice.
The Department of Homeland
Security (DHS), U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services (USCIS) invites
the general public and other Federal
agencies to comment upon this
proposed extension of a currently
approved collection of information. In
accordance with the Paperwork
Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995, the
information collection notice is
published in the Federal Register to
obtain comments regarding the nature of
the information collection, the
categories of respondents, the estimated
burden (i.e. the time, effort, and
resources used by the respondents to
SUMMARY:
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Frm 00043
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
respond), the estimated cost to the
respondent, and the actual information
collection instruments.
DATES: Comments are encouraged and
will be accepted for 60 days until
December 8, 2014.
ADDRESSES: All submissions received
must include the OMB Control Number
1615–0106 in the subject box, the
agency name and Docket ID USCIS–
2009–0010. To avoid duplicate
submissions, please use only one of the
following methods to submit comments:
(1) Online. Submit comments via the
Federal eRulemaking Portal Web site at
www.regulations.gov under e-Docket ID
number USCIS–2009–0010;
(2) Email. Submit comments to
USCISFRComment@uscis.dhs.gov;
(3) Mail. Submit written comments to
DHS, USCIS, Office of Policy and
Strategy, Chief, Regulatory Coordination
Division, 20 Massachusetts Avenue
NW., Washington, DC 20529–2140.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Comments
Regardless of the method used for
submitting comments or material, all
submissions will be posted, without
change, to the Federal eRulemaking
E:\FR\FM\09OCN1.SGM
09OCN1
]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 196 (Thursday, October 9, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 61088-61089]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-24111]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Number of Responses per Total number Hours per Total annual
Type of respondent respondents respondent of responses response burden hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Peer workers for interview...... 20 1 20 1 20
Peer workers for survey......... 100 1 100 1 100
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total....................... 120 .............. 120 .............. 120
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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: OIRA_Submission@omb.eop.gov. 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]
BILLING CODE 4162-20-P
