2016-04419. 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 [phone].

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 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

Instrument	Number of respondents	Responses per respondent	Total number of responses	Hours per response	Total burden hours
NITT-MFP Fellow Interview	66	1	66	1	66

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: [e-mail]. 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.