Form Community-Program Community-Program Community-Program Clinical Staff Time 2

Form Approved

OMB No. ###

Expiration Date ###

Opioid State Targeted Response (STR) Evaluation

Community/Program Director Time 2
Interview Protocol for Clinicians

Public Burden Statement: 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 0930-0xxx. Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 90 minutes per respondent, per year, 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 Reports Clearance Officer, 5600 Fishers Lane, Room 15E57-B, Rockville, Maryland, 20857.

chapter i: Information and directions

Purpose. The primary purpose of this protocol is to:

• Collect information about the implementation of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Opioid State Targeted Response (STR) grant. Evaluation questions focus on opioid use disorder* services and activities in your community/program during the period you received Opioid STR funding.

• Gain insights to improve Opioid STR grant processes and future efforts to prevent, treat and help individuals recover from opioid use disorder.

* Except where noted, all questions refer to prevention strategies, treatment and/or recovery services for opioid use disorder and related conditions (e.g., non-medical use of prescription pain medication, heroin users, one-time users, overdose, etc.) in your community/program during the period you received Opioid STR funding.

Content. Specific topics include current practices for preventing or treating opioid use disorder; barriers and facilitators to addressing opioid use disorder; community readiness for addressing opioid use disorder.

Pre-Interview. The interviewer will prepare for the interviews by:

• Scheduling on-site interviews with clinicians or other clinical staff at programs that have agreed to participate in the evaluation and who are willing to be interviewed in spring 2019 during the site visit;

• Asking each participant to sign a written consent form to conduct and record the interview; and

• Reviewing Community/Program Baseline, Time 2, and Final Instrument responses, and other relevant documents.

Site Visit. Site visits will consist of individual in-person interviews with clinicians or other staff at programs that are receiving Opioid STR funds. The interviewer will record data using questions/items found in this protocol. Interviews may be audio-recorded, pending consent (see Preparation for Interviews above), to ensure data integrity. The audio-recordings and completed interviews will be stored securely to ensure confidentiality. Any information or quotes used from the interview and included in community/program reports shall remain anonymous as to the individual and their position in the community/program.

Post-Interview. The interviewer will complete the interview process by:

• Transcribing the audio-recordings;

• Comparing the audio-recordings to the written interview responses for accuracy;

• Providing a draft copy of the interview notes to the interviewee for review;

• Contacting interviewees to clarify responses or to obtain additional information (if needed);

• Obtaining any feedback from the interviewees and making any additions to the notes;

• Destroying the audio-recording; and

• Filing any written materials obtained from the grantee.

interviewer: Read the following introduction verbatim to the interviewee

Hello, my name is ______________ and I work for the [INSERT CONTRACTOR NAME] as part of the team conducting an evaluation of the State Targeted Response to Opioid Abuse Grants, commonly known as the Opioid STR grants, which is sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA. You might recall that we interviewed you and your colleagues during our site visit in fall 2017. We are interviewing clinicians again to get their unique perspectives on several important topics related to the provision of prevention, treatment and recovery strategies/services to address opioid use disorder.

The overall goal of the evaluation is to document and assess the effectiveness of Opioid STR in providing prevention, treatment, and recovery strategies/services for opioid use disorder. We also want to gain insights to improve Opioid STR grant processes and future efforts to prevent, treat, and help individuals recover from opioid use disorder.

As I stated, this is the second interview that will be conducted as part of the Opioid STR program evaluation process. You are one of several other grantee clinicians that agreed to be interviewed across selected community/program sites for this second interview. All clinicians will be asked the same questions. Interview results may be reported in the Opioid STR evaluation report and the community/program reports, but information and quotes will not be attributed to you or your position as your name and role in the program will not be identified in any report. We will provide you with a copy of the interview notes and ask for your review and feedback.

As we progress through the interview, please think about what has helped and hindered you in implementing and delivering opioid prevention, treatment, and recovery strategies/services during the period that your program received Opioid STR funding. We are especially interested in hearing your success stories and lessons-learned that could help other communities/programs. If your community/program has developed any innovative approaches, please share them during the interview.

Prior to this interview, we referred back to our notes from the interview we conducted with you and your colleagues in fall 2017. We will refer to those responses from 2017 as a part of our questions.

This interview will take about 1 hour. In addition, we may contact you after this interview to clarify responses or to obtain additional information. In preparation for this interview, you consented to audio-recording. We are audio-recording this interview as a backup to our written/typed notes. The audio-recording will remain confidential and be destroyed after the interview notes are finalized.

Is it OK if I begin recording now?

[IF YES, START RECORDING.]

Thank you for agreeing to participate in this interview. Do you have any questions for me before we begin?

 

[IF YES, ANSWER QUESTIONS]

[IF NO, SAY: WE WILL NOW START GOING THROUGH THE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS]

Section I. Roles & Responsibilities

Before we begin, we would like to ask you a little about yourself.

1. Are you still serving as [insert position title from previous interview]? If no, what is your current position title? How long have you been in this position?

______________________­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­___________________________________________

Section II. patient population

Next, we would like to find out more about the patient population that you serve.

2. In fall 2017, you described the individuals with opioid use disorder in the area served by your program as [enter brief description before interview]. How has this changed over the period that your program has received Opioid STR funding?

3. In fall 2017, you described that the most common opioids misused in your community were [enter brief description before interview]. How has this changed over the period that your program has received Opioid STR funding?

4. In fall 2017, you explained that most individuals in your community with opioid use disorder receive treatment at [enter brief description before interview]. How has this changed over the period that your program has received Opioid STR funding?

5. In fall 2017, you described the most significant need in your community for addressing opioid use disorder as [enter brief description before interview]. Do you think this need has been addressed over the period that your program has received Opioid STR funding?

PROBE:

• Was this need addressed specifically because of the Opioid STR funding or because of some other mechanism?

Section III. current practices

Next, we would like to ask you about your clinical practices for screening and treating patients for opioid use disorder since you began receiving STR funding.

6. In fall 2017, you described the most helpful aspects of screening for opioid use disorder as [enter brief description before interview] and the most challenging aspects of screening for opioid use disorder as [enter brief description before interview]. How have these changed over the period that your program has received Opioid STR funding?

PROBES:

• Is there anything else that has been most helpful to you in screening for opioid use disorder?

• Is there anything else that has been most challenging to you in screening for opioid use disorder?

7. In fall 2017, you indicated that your community/program as offering the following prevention services: [enter brief description before interview]. How has this changed over the period that your program has received Opioid STR funding?

8. In fall 2017, you indicated that your community/program offered the following treatment and recovery services: [enter brief description before interview]. How has this changed over the period that your program has received Opioid STR funding?

PROBES:

• What has been most helpful to you in providing opioid use disorder treatment/recovery services?

• What has been the biggest challenge in providing opioid use disorder treatment/recovery services?

• In what ways have the helpful and challenging aspects of providing opioid use disorder treatment/recovery services changed during the period that you have received Opioid STR funding?

• How will your community/program sustain the implementation of these services?

9. In fall 2017, you described your community/program’s work with other agencies or organizations on the prevention, treatment, or recovery services as [enter brief description before interview]. How has this changed over the period that your program has received Opioid STR funding?

Section Iv. barriers and facilitators

We would like to learn more about your perspective on barriers and facilitators to implementing and delivering treatment or recovery services among individuals or populations who suffer from opioid use disorder. We are especially interested in the period since your community/program began receiving Opioid STR funds.

10. In fall 2017, you described the number of behavioral health care providers/staff as [enter brief description before interview]. How has this changed over the period that your program has received Opioid STR funding?

11. In fall 2017, you described the knowledge, skills, and experience of your behavioral health care providers/staff to provide opioid use disorder prevention strategies [enter brief description before interview]. How has this changed over the period that your program has received Opioid STR funding?

12. In fall 2017, you indicated that you [Needed/Did not need] training related to opioid use disorder prevention services. How has this changed over the period that you have received Opioid STR funding?

13. In fall 2017, you described the knowledge, skills, and experience of your behavioral health care providers/staff to provide opioid use disorder treatment/recovery services as [enter brief description before interview]. How has this changed over the period that your program have received Opioid STR funding?

14. In fall 2017, you indicated that you [Needed/Did not need] training related to opioid use disorder treatement/recovery services. How has this changed over the period that you have received Opioid STR funding?

15. In fall 2017, you described the difficulties that individuals or populations encountered in accessing opioid use disorder treatment/recovery services as [enter brief description before interview]. How has this changed over the period that you have received Opioid STR funding?

PROBE:

• Do you think there were an adequate number of behavioral health care providers/staff in your community/program to provide opioid use disorder treatment/recovery services?

16. In fall 2017, you explained that the groups that should be targeted as high priority groups for prevention strategies as [enter brief description before interview]. Do you think that is still the case?

17. In fall 2017, you explained that the groups that should be targeted as high priority groups for treatment and recovery services as [enter brief description before interview]. Do you think that is still the case?

Section V. current use of Opioid STR Funds

18. How has your program site expanded its services for prevention, treatment, and recovery of opioid use disorder with the Opioid STR funds?

PROBE:

• Which new approaches have you tried?

19. How have you improved your provision of previous or existing services to address opioid use disorder to your patients/clients?

20. In fall 2017, you indicated that your community/program planned to implement the following evidence-based practices to address opioid use disorder: [enter brief description before interview]. Has this changed over the period that you have received Opioid STR funding?

PROBES: (Option 1): If new evidence-based practices were implemented:

• Have there been any barriers to delivering new evidence-based practices for patients/clients with opioid use disorder at your program site?

• Have you adapted any of the evidence-based practices or taken other steps to overcome those challenges?

PROBE: (Option 2): If no new evidence-based practices have been implemented:

• Why were no new evidence-based practices implemented? Were there barriers to implementing new practices?

21. Do you think the Opioid STR funding has increased access to treatment for opioid use disorder?

PROBE: (Option 1): If respondent believes Opioid STR funding has increased access to treatment for opioid use disorder:

• To which types of care do you think individuals have better access? (i.e. medications, psychosocial services, therapy, overdose prevention, etc.)

PROBE: (Option 2): If respondent believes Opioid STR funding has not increased access to treatment for opioid use disorder:

• Why don’t you think Opioid STR funding has led to increased access to treatment for opioid use disorder? What types of opioid services are still difficult to access?

22. Do you think Opioid STR funding has helped certain populations more than others? If so, which populations (i.e younger, minority populations, etc.)?

23. Has the Opioid STR funding helped keep people engaged in treatment?

PROBES:

• Have you observed longer treatment retention times?

• Have you observed people engaging in recovery services for longer periods of time?

1. Finally, please describe how your community/program should sustain its new prevention, treatment, and/or recovery services that it delivered during the period that it received Opioid STR funding.

PROBES:

• What funding sources should be considered for sustaining your community/program’s prevention, treatment, and recovery services after the period of the Opioid STR funding has ended?

• Can these services be supported through other funding or operational resources?

• Do you have infrastructure in place to sustain services such as ongoing training, processes and policies to support services, etc?

• Are you monitoring data to ensure sustainability and determine when improvements are needed?

• Are there organizations that you either are working to partner with or have partnered with you to sustain your prevention, treatment, and recovery services after the period of the Opioid STR funding has ended?

• Are there any other strategies that you are considering for sustaining your community/program’s prevention, treatment, and/or recovery services?

Would you like to add anything else that we did not talk about regarding your community or program's ability to provide prevention, treatment and/or recovery services for opioid use disorder?

[IF YES, PROBE AND RECORD AS NEEDED]

If you have any questions or concerns about this interview, please contact [INSERT NAME] by telephone message (at XXX-XXX-XXXX), or by email (to email address). You can request assistance at any time and someone will respond to you on the next business day. As mentioned, we will provide you with a draft copy of the interview notes to ensure we captured your perspective accurately.

Thank you for your time.

[STOP RECORDING]