Toolkit Protocol for Crisis Counseling Assistance

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA) Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) will create a toolkit to be used for the purposes of collecting data on the Crisis Counseling Assistance and Training Program (CCP). The CCP provides supplemental funding to states and territories for individual and community crisis intervention services during a federal disaster. Data about services delivered and users of services will be collected throughout the program period. The data will be collected via the use of a toolkit that relies on standardized forms. At the program level, the data will be entered quickly and easily into a cumulative database to yield summary tables for quarterly and final reports for the program. We have confirmed the feasibility of using scanable forms for most purposes. Because the data will be collected in a consistent way from all programs, they can be uploaded into an ongoing national database that likewise provides CMHS with a way of producing summary reports of services provided across all programs funded. The components of the toolkit are listed and described in the Federal Register announcement. Written comments and recommendations concerning the proposed information collection should be sent by October 9, 2008.