OMB Memo

DATE:             December 11, 2007

To:                   OMB Desk Officer

From:               SAMHSA Clearance Officer

Subject:            Response to Conference Call on December 7, 2007

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This memo addresses the responses to the 3 issues that Mr. John Kraemer had on the conference call regarding the National Evaluation of the Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness (PAIMI) Program, as part of CMHS’s efforts to obtain OMB approval for the new data collection.

Drs. John Morrow (Branch Chief) and Herb Joseph (Project Officer) from the CMHS State Planning and Systems Development Branch (SPSDB) were on the phone along with Ms. Summer King, SAMHSA Clearance Officer.

Issue of Outcomes

Mr. Kraemer discussed the importance of measuring outcomes from the PAIMI program evaluation using a randomized, controlled design (gold standard) with comparison groups. Program staff agreed that this was an important issue that could partially be addressed through this evaluation, but that a more concerted and meaningful effort to address outcome measurement was more likely to follow the results of this evaluation.  In particular, the program was eager to have the results from the current evaluation to use as a baseline assessment of program functioning, especially as the PAIMI program had never undergone any type of independent evaluation in its over 21 year old history.  The results of the current evaluation are seen as providing guidance for refinement of the OMB-approved PART measures that the program has already been using to evaluate its performance as well as development of possible additional future outcome measures

Payment to Respondents (page 7 of Supporting Statement)

The language was changed to read as follows:

“This evaluation has a two-tiered system with respect to respondent payment.  With the exception of PAIMI clients, no payments or gifts will be provided to respondents for their participation in this data collection.  In the case of PAIMI clients, an incentive payment of $20.00 will be offered to encourage participation in the survey and focus group meetings.  It is important to provide some financial incentive to PAIMI clients as they typically live on much lower incomes than most Americans, are much more likely to have reduced access to transportation, and to be underemployed or unemployed due to disability.”

Assurance of Privacy (not Confidentiality) (page 7 of Supporting Statement)

The language was changed to read as follows:

“Participation in this evaluation is voluntary.  All survey introductions include the purpose of the information collection and that this activity is sponsored by the Federal Government.  Survey introductions inform respondents that their information will be kept strictly private and further that they are free to skip any question that they do not wish to answer