03-19058. 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].

Practitioner Services Network Initiative—New—SAMHSA's Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) plans to obtain information about the providers, care and characteristics of clients with substance abuse disorders and related co-morbidities that receive treatment from practitioners in private practice and organizational settings. This information is needed to complement available information about the substance abuse treatment provided in institutional and publicly funded settings, in order to more completely describe the full range and nature of substance abuse problems affecting the nation.

The CSAT Practitioner Services Network initiative will provide support to four of the largest behavioral health associations in the nation to design and implement surveys using representative samples of their members and the clients they serve. The membership of the selected Associations collectively represent a significant proportion of the behavioral health professionals in the country. Two additional associations, the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association, have separately functioning Internet-based PSN infrastructures; from these two groups CSAT will be able to purchase reports based on the data they have already collected.

For the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy; the American Counseling Association; NAADAC, The Association for Addiction Professionals; and the National Association of Social Workers, CSAT will sponsor new data collection efforts to provide a core set of data elements to be collected in their upcoming membership surveys. The four Associations conduct periodic sample surveys of their memberships through their individual Practitioner Services Network infrastructures and will incorporate a common set of specific substance-abuse questions that are of importance to CSAT into these studies. CSAT will sponsor data collection and purchase, from each Association, a report that addresses the characteristics of practitioners who may be expected to encounter clients with substance abuse disorders, the characteristics of clients with behavioral and/or substance abuse disorders, and the nature of services rendered to these clients.

The reports to be purchased by CSAT will be based on the Associations' surveys of a representative sample of 500 of their members. Practitioners in the sample will abstract demographic and encounter-specific data from two of their current patients' records. No client identifying information will be collected as part of this study. Data collection methods will include mailed surveys with mailed reminders and follow-up phone calls in order to achieve a target response rate of 80 percent. This information will complement CSAT's and SAMHSA's existing data collection efforts and provide a more comprehensive view of the populations in need of services, the prevalence of substance abuse and mental health co-morbidities, and the qualifications and training of private practitioners who serve these clients. The burden estimates are summarized in the following table.

Estimated number of respondents	Responses per respondent	Estimated completion time (hours)	Total burden hours
2,000	1	.33	660

Written comments and recommendations concerning the proposed information collection should be sent within 30 days of this notice to: Allison Herron Eydt, Human Resources and Housing Branch, Office of Management and Budget, New Executive Office Building, Room 10235, Washington, DC 20503; due to potential delays in OMB's receipt and processing of mail sent through the U.S. Postal Service, respondents are encouraged to submit comments by fax to: [phone].

Dated: July 21, 2003.

Anna Marsh,

Acting Executive Officer, SAMHSA.