2023-26586. Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection: Public Comment Request; Information Collection Request Title: Assessing the Use of Informal Contacts To Promote Caregivers' Engagement and Satisfaction With Home Visiting

AGENCY:

Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Department of Health and Human Services.

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

In compliance with the requirement for opportunity for public comment on proposed data collection projects of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, HRSA announces plans to submit an Information Collection Request (ICR), described below, to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Prior to submitting the ICR to OMB, HRSA seeks comments from the public regarding the burden estimate, below, or any other aspect of the ICR.

DATES:

Comments on this ICR should be received no later than February 5, 2024.

ADDRESSES:

Submit your comments to [e-mail] or mail the HRSA Information Collection Clearance Officer, Room 14N39, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, Maryland 20857.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

To request more information on the proposed project or to obtain a copy of the data collection plans and draft instruments, email [e-mail] or call Joella Roland, the HRSA Information Collection Clearance Officer, at (301) 443–3983.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

When submitting comments or requesting information, please include the ICR title for reference.

Information Collection Request Title: Assessing the Use of Informal Contacts to Promote Caregivers' Engagement and Satisfaction with Home Visiting OMB No. 0915–xxxx—[New].

Abstract: The Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program, authorized by Social Security Act, title V, section 511 (42 U.S.C. 711) and administered by HRSA in partnership with the Administration for Children and Families, supports voluntary, evidence-based home visiting services during pregnancy and for parents with young children up to kindergarten entry. States, tribal entities, and certain nonprofit organizations are eligible to receive funding from the MIECHV Program and have the flexibility to tailor the program to serve the specific needs of their communities. Funding recipients may subaward grant funds to local implementing agencies to provide home visiting services to eligible families in at-risk communities.

This information collection is part of the Assessing and Describing Practice Transitions Among Evidence-Based Home Visiting Programs in Response to the COVID–19 Public Health Emergency Study. This study aims to identify and study practices implemented in response to the COVID–19 public health emergency that support evidence-based practice and have the potential to enhance home visiting programming. One of the practices the study identified is the use of informal contacts. Informal contacts are any contacts between a home visitor and family that occur between formal home visits ( e.g., text messages, emails). The purpose of this information collection is to better understand, through rapid cycle learning, how MIECHV-funded home visiting programs can use informal contacts to improve service delivery and promote caregiver's engagement and satisfaction.

Information will be collected in four phases designed to (1) identify informal contact strategies (co-definition phase); (2) pilot test and identify refinements to improve the implementation of strategies (installation phase); (3) iteratively test the strategies with refinements to their implementation (refinement phase); and (4) assess the potential of informal contact strategies to improve service delivery and promote family engagement and family satisfaction with home visiting programs (summary phase). Data collection activities include focus groups, online questionnaires, and review of documents and administrative data.

Need and Proposed Use of the Information: The onset of the COVID–19 public health emergency prompted home visitors to use telephone, text, and social media direct messaging to informally contact families on a more frequent basis—in some instances, daily. This practice has continued for some programs even after the end of the public health emergency and the transition back to in-person service delivery. Current evidence suggests considerable variation in strategies used by home visiting programs with regards to context, type, frequency, and purpose of informal contacts. While increasing contacts helped home visitors to build rapport and further address family needs, other findings suggest that informal contacts can place pressure on families to engage with home visitors beyond what they have the capacity for and increase the workloads of home visitors. Given these initial findings and the increased use of informal contacts since the public health emergency, there is a need for more information about how home visitors contact families outside of home visits, variations in strategies, how families perceive the strategies, and how to address challenges around informal contacts. HRSA intends to use collected information to provide evidence-informed resources and strategies that MIECHV awardees can use to effectively engage and communicate with families between scheduled home visits.

Likely Respondents: Respondents include families who receive home visiting services and MIECHV-funded visiting program staff, which may include program directors, managers, supervisors, and home visitors.

Burden Statement: Burden in this context means the time expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, disclose, or provide the information requested. This includes the time needed to review instructions; to develop, acquire, install, and utilize technology and systems for the purpose of collecting, validating, and verifying information, processing and maintaining information, and disclosing and providing information; to train personnel and to be able to respond to a collection of information; to search data sources; to complete and review the collection of information; and to transmit or otherwise disclose the information. The total annual burden hours estimated for this ICR are summarized in the table below.

Total Estimated Annualized Burden Hours

Form name	Number of respondents	Number of responses per respondent	Total responses	Average burden per response (in hours)	Total burden hours
Program Eligibility Protocol	16	1	16	1.00	16.0
Program Staff Focus Group Protocol 1 (Co-definition Phase)	24	1	24	1.50	36.0
Program Staff Focus Group Protocol 2 (Co-definition Phase)	24	1	24	1.50	36.0
Program Staff Focus Group Protocol (Installation & Refinement Phases)	24	3	72	1.00	72.0
Program Staff Focus Group Protocol (Summary Phase)	24	1	24	1.00	24.0
Family Focus Group Protocol (Co-definition & Summary Phases)	48	1	48	1.00	48.0
Home Visitor Questionnaire (Installation & Refinement Phases)	40	9	360	0.17	61.2
Family Post-Visit Questionnaire (Refinement Phase)	48	6	288	0.08	23.0
Focus Group Participant Characteristics Form (All Phases)	120	1	120	0.08	9.6
Total	368		976		325.8

HRSA specifically requests comments on (1) the necessity and utility of the proposed information collection for the proper performance of the agency's functions; (2) the accuracy of the estimated burden; (3) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and (4) the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology to minimize the information collection burden.

Maria G. Button,

Director, Executive Secretariat.