Sspa 152017

SUPPORTING STATEMENT – PART A

Improving Caregiver Outcomes through Structured Support Via Military Caregiver Peer Forums – OMB Control Number 0704-XXXX

A.  JUSTIFICATION

1.  Need for the Information Collection

As stated in Under Secretary of Defense, Personal & Readiness (USD(P&R)) Memorandum dated July 14, 2014 Subject: Peer-to-Peer Support for Caregivers of Recovering Service Members, in 2014 the Office of the Secretary of Defense, established Military Caregiver PEER (Personalized Experiences, Engagement and Resources) Forums on military bases across the country where caregivers can convene, converse among their peers, share resources and best practices, and provide support for the challenges they face. The Office of Warrior Care Policy (WCP), Defense Health Agency (DHA), and Military Community & Family Policy (MC&FP) developed this initiative in response to a request from the White House Domestic Policy Council and to meet the requirement in section 1611(f)(2) of PL 110-181, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, which directs uniform standards and requirements for the provision of advice and training to family members regarding care for recovering Service members.

To better understand how the PEER Forums are performing and ensure that they are meeting their specified objectives, the Readiness and Force Management (R&FM) and MC&FP offices within the Office of the Secretary of Defense commissioned the RAND National Defense Research Institute (NDRI) to assess how participants are using the PEER Forums, how participating in the PEER Forums benefits them, and the role that PEER Forums play in the landscape of social support services available to caregivers.

2.  Use of the Information

The information obtained in this collection will be used to assess the Military Caregiver PEER Forums and determine how they are currently improving and might better continue to improve caregiver well-being by reducing caregiver burden and addressing caregiver isolation. MC&FP will use the information gathered by this project to assess the implementation of PEER Forums and implement improvements, if needed. A complementary objective is to use the information gathered by this project to provide MC&FP with a framework for ongoing monitoring and evaluation of PEER Forums.

RAND NDRI study team members will collect information by conducting semi-structured interviews with three key public stakeholders: Recovery Care Coordinators who refer caregivers to the PEER forums, Military and Family Life Counselors who run the PEER forums, and caregivers who have been referred to participate in the PEER forums.

To recruit respondents to participate in this information collection, RAND staff will first obtain contact information of prospective respondents from DoD administrative staff who oversee the PEER forums from both R&FM and MC&FP. RAND will then contact prospective respondents individually to invite them to participate in an interview (an example has been provided for OMB’s review). Once they agree to be interviewed and the interview is scheduled, they will be sent a confirmation email with an attachment; that attachment will include the consent form (which will include all appropriate disclosures such as confidentiality of the information they provide), the Agency Disclosure Notice (ADN), and the expiration date for OMB approval of this information collection.

All interviews will be conducted one-on-one between an interviewer and respondent. Interviews will be conducted on the phone or in-person only. We will ask if they had read the consent form and ADN sent in the confirmation email; if they have not, we will read it to them at that time and obtain their consent verbally. For those that occur in person, we will provide respondents with a paper copy of the consent form and ADN.

With respondents’ permission, interviews will be recorded and electronic notes will be taken during the interview, with interviewers taking hand-typed notes in standard word-processing software (e.g., Microsoft Word).

Separate discussion protocols will be created for different stakeholder groups to elicit different but complementary information and ensure that RAND NDRI obtains a comprehensive set of perspectives on the forums and the discussions will not deviate from the subjects / prompts provided on the guides. Topics covered in the discussion guides for each stakeholder group are listed in Exhibit A2.1 below (copies of the discussion guides for each stakeholder group are provided with this submission for OMB’s review).

Exhibit A2.1. Topics covered in discussion guides by stakeholder group.

	Stakeholder group
Topic	Recovery Care Coordinators	Military and Family Life Counselors	Caregivers (PEER forum participants)
How the PEER Forums are conducted		X	X
Who attends the forums		X	X
How caregivers were connected to forums and why they started going			X
History of PEER forums at the installation (when, why, and how the program was brought there)	X	X
Perceptions of program effects/outcomes	X	X	X
Efforts to evaluate PEER forums	X	X
Where PEER forums fit in the broader landscape of social support programs	X

Once interviews are confirmed and conducted, no names will be retained in notes, though for Recovery Care Coordinators who refer caregivers to the PEER forums, Military and Family Life Counselors who run the PEER forums, their position and organizational affiliation will be retained.

All data will be stored on RAND’s Project Teamspace site, accessible only to authorized project staff, in password-protected files. Notes will be labeled only with the name of the organization and the date on which the interview was conducted. Following analysis, reports will be prepared. These reports will not contain only information about the types and scope of the services offered by the organizations that participated in the interviews.

3.  Use of Information Technology

Due to the nature of the collection, we have determined that 50% of information collection involves electronic collection methods. While the initial outreach and confirmation efforts are conducted via email and interviewers will be utilizing audio-recording devices and typing notes using standard word-processing software (e.g., Microsoft Word), the focus groups interviews are required to be conducted in-person.

4.  Non-duplication

The PEER Forums constitute a new program that has not previously been studied. Administrative data exists that details basic information about the forums (e.g., number of attendees), and the current project will analyze this data to provide an overall picture of the PEER Forums. However, the administrative data is not detailed enough to understand how participants are using the PEER Forums, how participating in the PEER Forums benefits them, or what changes could potentially improve the effectiveness of PEER Forums in reducing caregiver burden and social isolation.

5.  Burden on Small Business

This information collection does not impose a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small businesses or entities

6.  Less Frequent Collection

We will only interview research participants once. The effectiveness of PEER forums may suffer without the programmatic evaluation provided by this collection.

7.  Paperwork Reduction Act Guidelines

There are no special circumstances associated with this information collection request; it will be conducted in a manner consistent with the guidelines delineated in 5 CFR 1320.5(d)(2).

8.  Consultation and Public Comments

Part A: PUBLIC NOTICE

The 60-day Federal Register Notice was published on Tuesday, May 17, 2016. The 60-Day FRN citation is 81 FRN 30521.

No comments were received during the 60-Day comment period.

A 30-Day Federal Register Notice for the collection published on Tuesday, January 10, 2017. The 30-Day FRN citation is 82 FRN 2970.

Part B: CONSULTATION

No additional consultation apart from soliciting public comments through the 60-Day Federal Register Noticed was conducted for this submission.

9.  Gifts or Payment

This data collection will not include respondent incentive payments or gifts.

10.  Confidentiality

Individuals contacted as part of this data collection will be assured of the confidentiality of their replies under 42 U.S.C. 1306, 20 CFR 401 and 422, 5 U.S.C. 552 (Freedom of Information Act), 5 U.S.C. 552a (Privacy Act of 1974), and OMB Circular A-130. The consent form sent to respondents will include all appropriate disclosures such as confidentiality of the information they provide, an Agency Disclosure Notice (ADN) and the expiration date for OMB approval of this information collection.

A SORN is not required because records are not retrievable by PII.

A PIA is not required because PII is not being collected electronically.

Concerning records retention and disposition, all data will be stored on the Project Teamspace site, accessible only to authorized project staff, in password-protected files. Notes will be labeled only with the name of the organization and the date on which the interview was conducted.

Following analysis, reports will be prepared. These reports will not contain only information about the types and scope of the services offered by the organizations that participated in the interviews.

The interview notes and recordings will be kept for one year following the publication of the final reports on the study. Raw data will be stored at RAND under the direction of Rajeev Ramchand.

11.  Sensitive Questions

The sensitive interview questions asked of caregivers are about their care recipients’ condition/injury requiring care and the services caregivers have accessed for help. These questions are needed to help understand the variety of situations experienced by participants in the PEER forums and how that variety impacts the perceived effectiveness of the forums. Questions about other services used by caregivers are needed to understand how the PEER Forum program fits in with other benefits offered to caregivers. During consent, interview participants will be informed that they are under no obligation to discuss anything they do not feel comfortable discussing with us, and that all information they provide will be kept confidential and will not be shared with anyone outside of the RAND study team.

12.  Respondent Burden, and its Labor Costs

a.  Estimation of Respondent Burden

Estimation of Respondent Burden Hours
	Number of Respondents	Number of Responses per Respondent	Number of Total Annual Responses	Response Time (Amount of time needed to complete the collection instrument)	Respondent Burden Hours (Total Annual Responses multiplied by Response Time) Please compute these into hours)
Military and Family Life Consultants (MFLCs)	30	1	30	1hour	30
Recovery Care Coordinators (RCCs)	25	1	25	1hour	25
Caregivers	35	1	35	1hour	35
Total	90	1	90	1 hour	90

b.  Labor Cost of Respondent Burden

Labor Cost of Respondent Burden
	Number of Responses	Response Time per Response	Respondent Hourly Wage	Labor Burden per Response (Response Time multiplied by Respondent Hourly Wage)	Total Labor Burden (Number of Respondents multiplied by Response Time multiplied by Respondent Hourly Wage)
MFLCs	30	1hour	$54.00**	$54.00*	$1,620.00
RCCs	25	1hour	$54.00**	$54.00*	$1,350.00
Caregivers	35	1hour	$25.35***	$25.35**	$887.25
Total	90	1hour			$3,857.25

** Based upon mean hourly wages for psychologists cited in “May 2015 National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates-United States” from the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/wages/index.htm

*** Based upon mean hourly wages cited in “National Compensation Survey: All United States February 2016” from the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/wages/index.htm

13.  Respondent Costs Other Than Burden Hour Costs

Respondents will incur no costs other than burden hour costs as a result of participation.

14.  Cost to the Federal Government

Labor Cost to the Federal Government
	Focus Groups	Total
Number of Responses	90	90
Processing Time Per Response (in hours)	50	50
Hourly Wage of Worker(s) Processing Responses	$53.66	$53.66
Cost to Process Each Response (Processing Time Per Response multiplied by Hourly Wage of Worker(s) Processing Responses)	$2,683.00	$2,683.00
Total Cost to Process Responses (Cost to Process Each Response multiplied by Number of Responses	$241,470.00	$241,470.00

Hourly wage is based upon mean hourly basic rate for GS-14 Step 2 federal employee in the Washington, DC area from the U.S. Office of Personnel and Management, https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries-wages/salary-tables/pdf/2016/DCB.pdf .

Operational and Maintenance Costs
Equipment	Printing	Postage	Software Purchases	Licensing Costs	Other	Total
$0	$0	$0	$0	$0	$11,679.00	$11,679.00

The “Other” cost encompasses travel, computing, publication costs.

Total Cost to the Federal Government
Operational and Maintenance Costs	Labor Cost to the Federal Government	Total Cost (O&M Costs + Labor Cost)
$11,679.00	$241,470.00	$253,149.00

15.  Reasons for Change in Burden

This is a new information collection with a new associated burden.

16.  Publication of Results

As is common in qualitative research using interviews, thematic data will be presented. Non-attributional quotes from individuals may be presented as results. These illustrative quotes from individual interviews or forum monitoring that are used in reports or briefings will be redacted so that potentially identifiable information is not revealed.

Individual-level data from stakeholder interviews will not be made publicly available to military personnel or the general public. Once the data is analyzed, it will be presented in aggregate via one or more briefings to DoD officials and/or at scientific conferences. It may also include peer-reviewed publications and/or a RAND publication.

The project was initiated in August 2015. If the stakeholder interviews are conducted March 2017-August 2017, we anticipate the report will be complete in August 2017. Publication of results is dependent on security clearance from the Department of Defense.

17.  Non-Display of OMB Expiration Date

We are not requesting approval to omit the display of the expiration date of OMB approval on the collection instrument. The expiration date for OMB approval of this information collection will be provided to stakeholders on the consent form.

18.  Exceptions to "Certification for Paperwork Reduction Submissions"

We are not asking for any exemptions to the provisions certified in Item 19.a. of the OMB Form 83-I.

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