Addressing the Opioid Crisis
in Communities of Color
ASPE Generic Information Collection Request
OMB No. 0990-0421
Submitted: January 13, 2020
Program Official/Project Officer
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
200 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20201
Annette Waters
Annette.waters@hhs.gov
This exploratory study will seek to engage participants who work for substance-use treatment organizations and human services agencies. We expect to speak to a convenience sample of respondents.
With input from the Urban Institute and other agencies within HHS, ASPE and OMH will identify eight sites for the study and a few additional sites as backups. Sites may range from specific neighborhoods, to a city, county, multi-county area, or state where a program or policy has been implemented. The sites selected for this qualitative study will be suggested based on the findings of a literature review with a focus on disparities in substance use and opioid use disorder prevalence, treatment, and outcomes in racial and ethnic minority communities. It is expected to include sites with: 1) potentially promising treatment models for integrating human services with SUD treatment, 2) a concentration of two or more racial/ethnic minority groups, 3) high SUD prevalence and overdose mortality rates, 4) geographic diversity, and 5) rurality.
We will identify potential informants through the literature review and web-based background research on each selected site. We will also use a snowball sampling method to solicit recommendations for potential participants from interviewees when we speak with them.
For each site, we expect to conduct interviews with substance use and human services administrators or caseworkers as well as other relevant stakeholders.
The contractor will conduct on-site visits for six sites, and virtual site visits, via phone or webinar, for the remaining two sites. The contractor will conduct semi-structured individual interviews with eight respondents per site, for an estimated total of 64 individual interviews across all sites. We estimate that interviews will last 1.5 hours. These interviews will elicit information and perspectives about the local context and strategies to address disparities in SUD treatment for racial and ethnic minorities, including integrating human services with SUD treatment.
We plan to record and take notes during each interview. Redacted transcriptions of the recordings will also be prepared to protect the identity of participants. and the contractor will provide the redacted transcripts to ASPE and OMH. The contractor will code and analyze transcripts with NVivo to help identify key themes. The contractor will prepare a report for ASPE to summarize study findings.
We intend to use a snowball method for recruitment. This would entail asking key informants to give recommendations for other contacts and proceeding from there. It is our assumption that this will help to increase the response rate during the outreach process. If the contractor finds that initial outreach is unsuccessful, the contractor will follow up one week later with the contact using a reminder to solicit their participation. Once we obtain a response from study participants, we will confirm their participation in an email and send suggested times to schedule the interview.
All contractor staff who will be leading and participating in interviews and discussion groups will attend a training on the discussion guide protocols. All interviewers have subject matter expertise in substance-use disorder and program research. Discussion guide protocols have been developed by the contractor in close coordination with ASPE and OMH (Attachment A).
5. Contacts for Statistical Aspects and Data Collection
ASPE and OMH subject matter experts with technical and statistical expertise were consulted on the development of this exploratory data collection. This includes: (1) Annette Waters, Social Science Analyst at HHS/ASPE, email: Annette.Waters@hhs.gov, phone: 202- 260-0196; (2) Robin Ghertner, Director of the Data and Technical Analysis Division at HHS/ASPE, email: Robin.Ghertner@hhs.gov, phone: 202-690-6939; and (3) Juliet Bui, Public Health Advisor at HHS/OMH, Juliet.Bui@hhs.gov, 240-453-6166.
In addition, contractor staff include key subject matter experts in substance use and human services with extensive experience with performing qualitative data collection. These include:
Individual |
Affiliation and Position |
Role |
Lisa Clemans-Cope 202-261-5580 |
Urban Institute, Principal Research Associate |
Project lead, senior site visitor |
Christal Ramos 202-261-5605 |
Urban Institute, Senior Research Associate |
Project co-lead, senior site visitor |
Kimá Taylor 202-754-2838 |
Urban Institute, Fellow |
Senior site visitor |
Marla McDaniel 202-261-5678 |
Urban Institute, Senior Fellow |
Senior advisor |
Eva Allen 202-261-5641 |
Urban Institute, Research Associate |
Site visitor, project manager |
Note: Attachments are included as separate files as instructed.
Attachment A-Discussion Guide
File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
Author | Allen, Eva |
File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
File Created | 2021-01-14 |