Form Direct Service Sta Direct Service Sta Direct Service Staff Instruments

Attachment 5: Document 1 - Direct Services Staff Semi-Structured Interview Guide

Form Approved
OMB No. ####-####
Expiration Date: ##/##/####

TARGETED CAPACITY EXPANSION PROGRAM FOR SUBSTANCE ABUSE
TREATMENT AND HIV/AIDS SERVICES (TCE-HIV)
MULTI-SITE EVALUATION PROJECT

DIRECT SERVICES STAFF SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW GUIDE

CONDUCTED BY:
JBS International Inc., Alliance for Quality Education, Battelle Memorial Institute, and the
Oregon Health & Science University

Grantee Name:

__________________________________________

Grantee ID Number:

__________________________________________

Date Completed:

_______ /

_______ /

Month

Day

_______
Year

Notice to Respondents
Public reporting time for this collection is estimated to average 60 minutes, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data
sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this
burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden to SAMHSA OMB Officer, 1
Choke Cherry Road Room 7-1044, Rockville, MD 20850. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a
collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB control number for this project is XXXX-XXXX.

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Attachment 5: Document 1 - Direct Services Staff Semi-Structured Interview Guide
Direct Services Staff Interview
Introduction (2.5 minutes)

Instructions to Interviewers

The purpose of this guide is to provide an
overview of the information that will be gathered
through interviews with Grantee site direct
services staffs involved with the Targeted
Capacity Expansion Program for Substance Abuse
Treatment and HIV/AIDS Services (TCE-HIV)
Project. “Direct Services Staff” refers to staff
members from the Grantee organization/program
who have direct contact with clients to perform
treatment-related tasks. Examples of those
performing direct service tasks include outreach
workers, counselors, and case managers.
Direct services staff interviews may vary in
format, depending on Grantee preference, and
more than one individual may be present during a
given interview session. Each respondent will
complete a consent form and data sheet.

CSAT has funded four organizations, JBS
International, Inc., the Alliance for Quality
Education, Battelle Memorial Institute, and the
Oregon Health & Science University, to conduct a
Multi-Site Evaluation of its national Targeted
Capacity Expansion Program for Substance Abuse
Treatment and HIV/AIDS Services. (Introduce
team members, give brief description of
qualifications, and describe functions during the
interview).
As part of the Multi-Site Evaluation, we are
conducting interviews with staff members of the
TCE-HIV program. As evaluators, we would like
to document the successes and challenges of
implementing your TCE-HIV program, to better
understand how your TCE-HIV program has
developed over the course of the past year, and
how it assesses client behaviors. We would also
like to gain insight into the degree to which
agency and community partnerships, linkages, and
capacity have developed through the course of
your project’s operations.

Members of the Multi-Site Evaluation Team will
conduct the interview in a private setting,
convenient to the interview participant(s). The
interview will last approximately 1 hour.
The goal of direct services staff interviews
conducted during TCE-HIV Multi-Site Evaluation
site visits include:

Although the Multi-Site Evaluation Team is
funded by CSAT (as is your TCE-HIV grant), we
are not part of that federal agency (or any other
federal agency). We are independent evaluators of
the program.

(1) Documentation of the development and
changes in TCE-HIV program operations,
staffing, training and programming (e.g.,
outreach-pretreatment and/or treatment
activities)

We greatly value the information you are able to
provide about your TCE-HIV program. We have
prepared some topic areas and questions on which
we would like your comments. Also, please note
that we are specifically interested in your TCEHIV program clients, services, and activities.
Your name and title will not appear in the report
unless we specifically ask for your approval.
Although we are taking detailed notes, we would
also like to tape record the interview in case we
need to verify our notes with the interview
dialogue.

(2) Improved understanding of program, agency,
and community capacity changes that result
from TCE-HIV activities
(3) Exploration of changes in the number or
nature of partnerships and collaborations both
internal and external to the TCE-HIV program
agency
Final interview guides for each specific Grantee
will be customized based on the knowledge and
role of each individual interviewee and the nature
of individual Grantee’s program(s). The
information gathered from this interview will be
used to better understand how the TCE-HIV
funded program operates in this setting and will
be synthesized with information gathered from be
synthesized with information gathered from other

Are you comfortable with this approach? Do you
have any questions about what I have explained?
If not, let’s get started. We expect this may take 1
hour, however, if your program provides
outreach/pretreatment and treatment services the
interview may take up to 1 hour and 15 minutes.

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Attachment 5: Document 1 - Direct Services Staff Semi-Structured Interview Guide

For ease of future qualitative analysis coding and
thematic content analysis, any key
findings/themes that appeared during the
interview should also be recorded in the post
interview summary form at the end of this
document. The associated page number note
references and a listing of respondents whose
statements support reported findings should also
be noted, if applicable.

TCE-HIV Grantees to inform the Multi-Site
Evaluation of the TCE-HIV program.
Following completion of the administrator
interview, the interviewer(s) should complete the
post interview summary form to validate that each
interview section topic was covered during the
interview. Space is also provided to record other
germane topics discussed during the administrator
interview, a list of any documents received,
assorted observations regarding interview
proceedings, and additional notes/comments
relating to the interview.

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Attachment 5: Document 1 - Direct Services Staff Semi-Structured Interview Guide

NOTE: Section III of the Interview Guide is directed to OUTREACH/PRETREATMENT
GRANTEES Staff. Section IV of the Interview Guide is directed to TREATMENT
GRANTEES Staff. All other sections are directed at BOTH Grantee types.

I.

Involvement (*Understand what they do, how long they have been doing it, and how vested they
are in the program) (2.5 minutes)

I’d like to ask you about your overall involvement with your TCE-HIV program and your specific role in
the program.
A. First of all, would you please describe your current role in the TCE-HIV program? (e.g., case
manager, counselor, outreach worker, intake worker)
PROBE 1:

Has your role changed significantly over the past year?

B. What percentage of your time (FTE) is devoted to TCE-HIV program activities?
C. What are your day-to-day functions as part of the TCE-HIV services to clients?
II.

Community/Contextual Conditions (*Ask about the community environment in which a Grantee
operates, substance abuse levels, drugs of choice, and characteristics of the target population
community) (10 minutes)

Please provide us with some background regarding the characteristics of the community your program
operates in and serves.
A. Please provide an overview of the community including characteristics of the community where
is located. Community characteristics could include economics,
employment, education, politics, housing, medical and public health, psychosocial services, and
behavioral services.

III.

PROBE 1:

How would you describe the substance abuse related problems in the
community where the Grantee agency is located?

PROBE 2:

How would you describe the HIV/AIDS related problems in the
community where the Grantee agency is located?

PROBE 3:

How would you describe the target group for the TCE-HIV program
(Descriptors might include gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, substance
abuse risk, HIV risk employment status)?

PROBE 4:

How would you describe the poverty and unemployment issues in the
community where the Grantee agency is located?

Program Description: Services, Training, and Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) (*Understand
program activities around each TCE-HIV component.) (15 minutes)

We would like to better understand the program services that your agency offers to clients through its
TCE-HIV program.
FOR OUTREACH/PRETREATMENT GRANTEES
A. How do you distinguish between outreach and pretreatment services?
B. Please tell us more about the outreach services you provide as part of your TCE-HIV program.

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Attachment 5: Document 1 - Direct Services Staff Semi-Structured Interview Guide

PROBE 1:

What do you do as part of your outreach services?

PROBE 2:

Please describe any services and activities provided that target HIV risk
behaviors.

PROBE 3:

How often are outreach services provided?

PROBE 4:

What types of materials do you use during your outreach activities?

C. Do you use any pre-client/client screening assessments to detect substance abuse and mental
health issues/problems?
PROBE 1:

If so, what screening assessments do you use for substance use; for mental
health?

D. Please describe a typical pretreatment encounter.
Staffing & Training
The next questions are about training and technical assistance.
A. Please tell us about any training or technical assistance that you may have received to
implement your TCE-HIV program.
PROBE 1:

What type of training or technical assistance did you receive to implement
your EBPs?

PROBE 2:

Who provided the training?

PROBE 3:

How were training sessions offered?

PROBE 4:

Did the technical assistance and training you received meet your
expectations?

PROBE 5:

Was the timing of the training appropriate?

HIV Testing
Let’s talk about HIV testing services provided as part of the TCE-HIV program.
A. Can you describe your program’s HIV counseling and testing services?
PROBE 1:

Can you tell us about what you do as part of the TCE-HIV program related
to HIV testing and counseling services?

B. What are some of the barriers and facilitators to providing HIV testing and counseling services?
C. Please describe your confirmatory HIV testing procedures.
Cultural Competency
We’d like to ask you a few questions about cultural competency or cultural appropriateness.
A. What strategies and approaches do you or the program engage in to ensure that clients receive
culturally appropriate services?
PROBE 1:

How do you know the program is culturally appropriate?

PROBE 2:

How are materials developed that represent the clients you served?

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Attachment 5: Document 1 - Direct Services Staff Semi-Structured Interview Guide

IV.

Program Description: Services, Training and EBP Intervention (*Understand program
activities around each TCE-HIV component. Is there regular training, manualized evidence-based
approaches, fidelity, and monitoring of treatment practices) (20 minutes)

We would like to better understand the program services that your agency offers to clients through its
TCE-HIV program.
FOR TREATMENT GRANTEES
A. Please tell us about the treatment services you provide through the TCE-HIV program.
PROBE 1:

What do you do as part of the TCE-HIV program as it relates to treatment
services?

PROBE 2:

What are your day-to-day activities related to the TCE-HIV program?

PROBE 3:

Please describe any services and activities provided that target HIV risk
behaviors.

The next questions are about the program’s EBPs.
B. Please tell us about the EBPs the program has implementing as part of your TCE-HIV program.
PROBE 1:

To your knowledge, have there been any changes to the original
interventions/EBPs being implemented at your site?

C. How do you know that the EBP sessions are implemented the way they should be? (Fidelity:
the extent to which delivery of an intervention adheres to the protocol or program model
originally developed)
D. Have you made any changes/modifications to your EBPs?
PROBE 1:

What changes/modifications were made? Why were they made?

E. How does the program keep track of the changes/modifications that have been made?
Staffing & Training
The next questions are about training and technical assistance.
A. Please tell us about any training or technical assistance (TA) that you may have received to
implement your TCE-HIV program.
PROBE 1:

What type of training and TA did you receive to implement your EBPs?

PROBE 2:

Who provided the training and TA?

PROBE 3:

How were training and TA sessions offered?

PROBE 4:

Did the training and TA you received meet your expectations?

PROBE 5:

Was the timing of the training and TA appropriate?

PROBE 6:

How could the training and TA process be improved?

B. What additional type of training and TA, if any, was required to implement the TCE-HIV
program?
PROBE 1:

Was there additional training and TA about how to implement the EBPs?

PROBE 2:

Was there additional training and TA about how to collect data for the
TCE-HIV program?

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Attachment 5: Document 1 - Direct Services Staff Semi-Structured Interview Guide

C. Have you requested any type of training and TA to conduct your TCE-HIV services?
HIV Testing
Let’s discuss HIV testing services provided as part of the TCE-HIV program.
A. Please describe your program’s HIV counseling and testing services
PROBE 1:

What do you do as part of the TCE-HIV program related to HIV testing
and counseling?

Cultural Competency
We’d like to ask you a few questions about cultural competency or cultural appropriateness.
A. What strategies and approaches do you or the program engage in to ensure that clients receive
culturally appropriate services?

V.

PROBE 1:

How do you know the program is culturally appropriate?

PROBE 2:

How are materials developed that represent the clients you served?

Partnerships/Collaborators (* Understand staff perception of partners/collaborators) (8 minutes)

This section describes the development of partnerships and collaborations that may have occurred within
the context of the TCE-HIV program. (Partnerships and collaborations refer to organizations/agencies
that have a memorandum of understanding or a memorandum of agreement with your agency to provide
services to your TCE-HIV clients.)
A. What are your impressions of any partnerships and collaborative efforts stemming from the
TCE-HIV program?
PROBE 1:

In your opinion, has the formation of partnerships contributed to the overall
success of the TCE-HIV program?

PROBE 2:

What services do your partners/collaborators provide to clients?

PROBE 3:

In your opinion, how have partnerships and collaboration influenced the
TCE-HIV program?

PROBE 4:

Do you meet regularly with a representative from the partnering
agency/agencies to review the level of service delivery?

B. Please describe the effect that these partnerships and collaboration have had on the overall
community substance abuse and HIV service capacity.

VI.

Barriers and Challenges (*Probe for barriers and challenges that TCE-HIV Grantees have faced
through the course of implementing their programs) (8 minutes)

Finally, we would like to collect some information regarding any barriers or challenges you have faced
over the past year, which might influence your TCE-HIV program.
A. What barriers and challenges have you faced through the course of implementing your TCEHIV program?
B. How are you meeting these challenges?
C. What has been the most positive aspect of the TCE-HIV program this past year?

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Attachment 5: Document 1 - Direct Services Staff Semi-Structured Interview Guide

VII. Closing (2 minutes)
Thank you for taking the time to speak with us today. Is there anything else that you would like to add
regarding the TCE-HIV program or the multi-site evaluation?

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Attachment 5: Document 1 - Direct Services Staff Semi-Structured Interview Guide

DIRECT STAFF INTERVIEWER
FORMS
The following are forms that should be completed by the interviewer(s) and they are not part of the direct service
staff interview.

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Attachment 5: Document 1 - Direct Services Staff Semi-Structured Interview Guide

EBP Modification Tables [Completed by Interviewer]
Grantee ID# ________________
Name of EBP:
EBP Modified:


Modification
To Better Serve
Target
Population

Description of Modifications Made

To Increase
Cultural
Competency
Change of EBP
Curriculum
Altered Dosage
of EBP (e.g., #
sessions)

Altered
Dosage

Standard
Dosage

Other (Specify)

Other (Specify)

Name of EBP:
EBP Modified:


Modification:
To Better Serve
Target
Population

Description of Modification

To Increase
Cultural
Competency
Change of
Curriculum
Altered
Treatment
Dosage (e.g., #
sessions)

Altered
Dosage

Standard
Dosage

Other (Specify)

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Attachment 5: Document 1 - Direct Services Staff Semi-Structured Interview Guide

Other (Specify)

Name of EBP:
EBP Modified:


Modification:
To Better Serve
Target
Population

Description of Modification

To Increase
Cultural
Competency
Change of EBP
Curriculum
Altered
Treatment
Dosage (e.g., #
sessions)

Altered
Dosage

Standard
Dosage

Other (Specify)

Other (Specify)

Name of EBP:
EBP Modified:


Modification:
To Better Serve
Target
Population

Description of Modification

To Increase
Cultural
Competency
Change of EBP
Curriculum
Altered
Treatment
Dosage (e.g., #
sessions)

Altered
Dosage

Standard
Dosage

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Attachment 5: Document 1 - Direct Services Staff Semi-Structured Interview Guide

Other (Specify)

Other (Specify)

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Attachment 5: Document 1 - Direct Services Staff Semi-Structured Interview Guide
Post-Interview Summary [Completed by Interviewer]
Table: Discussion Topics Covered in Interview and Key Findings/Themes


Section

Key Interview Findings/Themes by Topic Area

Respondents
Supporting
Finding*

Supporting
Page(s) in
Notes

Respondent(s)
Involvement

Community/
Contextual
Conditions

Program
Description

Staffing and
Training

Cultural
Competence/
Appropriateness

HIV Testing

Partnerships/
Collaborators

Barriers/
Challenges
* Code respondents based on Face Sheet numbering: Respondent 1 as R1, Respondent 2 as R2, etc. (e.g., Statements
by R1 supported Key Theme 1)

Other Topic Areas Discussed

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Attachment 5: Document 1 - Direct Services Staff Semi-Structured Interview Guide

List of Documents Obtained

Observations Regarding Interview Setting (e.g., description of location, disruptions, etc.)

Observations Regarding Interview Respondents (e.g., engagement level, reluctance, etc.)

Additional Notes and Comments

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Attachment 5: Document 2 - Direct Services Staff Data Sheet
Form Approved
OMB No. ####-####
Expiration Date: ##/##/####

TCE-HIV Multi-Site Evaluation
Direct Services Staff
CSAT would like to learn more about you and your involvement in this organization/program. Please
take a few minutes to answer these questions before the interview begins. Your help in answering
these questions is greatly appreciated and your answers will be held in confidence.
Grantee ID Number: _____________________________

Date: __________________________

Name: _________________________________________

Title: __________________________

Organization: ___________________________________

Phone #: ______________________

Years in current position: _____________ Years in substance abuse tx field: ______________
What is your gender?

Male

Female

Transgender

What is your age? ___________ years old Education: __________________________________
Are you Hispanic or Latino?

Yes

No

[IF YES] What ethnic group do you consider yourself? Please answer yes or no for each of
the following. You may say yes to more than one.
Central American
Yes
No
Cuban
Yes
No
Dominican
Yes
No
Mexican
Yes
No
Puerto Rican
Yes
No
South American
Yes
No
Other
Yes
No
(If you answered Yes to “Other”, please specify) _________________________________________
What is your race? Please answer yes or no for each of the following. You may say check all
that apply.
Alaska Native
Yes
No
American Indian
Yes
No
Asian
Yes
No
Black or African American
Yes
No
Native Hawaiian
Yes
No
Other Pacific Islander
Yes
No
White
Yes
No
Other
Yes
No
(If you answered Yes to “Other”, please specify) ________________________________________
Notice to Respondents
Public reporting time for this collection is estimated to average 60 minutes, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data
sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this
burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden to SAMHSA OMB Officer, 1
Choke Cherry Road Room 7-1044, Rockville, MD 20850. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a
collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB control number for this project is XXXX-XXXXX.