OhioMHAS Psychological First Aid Trainings

In an MBE set-aside solicitation, only those bidders/suppliers with an active MBE certification at the time the solicitation closes can submit a response

SRC0000027366

2/14/2025 2:00:00 PM

1. Purpose

OhioMHAS is seeking proposals from qualified contractors to conduct Psychological First Aid (PFA) trainings within Ohio’s communities and expand knowledge of this evidence-informed approach to behavioral health disaster recovery.

1. Background

The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) (P.L. 117-159) provides supplemental funding for the Community Mental Health Services Block Grant (MHBG) to enable states, the District of Columbia, and territories to expand access to mental health care. Overseen by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the BSCA supplemental funding seeks to support state behavioral health systems in examining what is needed to address the mental health needs in the aftermath of traumatic events and natural disasters within our communities. To address the massive disruption and loss of life caused by these crises, SAMHSA is recommending that states utilize this funding to strengthen and enhance behavioral health disaster preparedness and crisis response efforts. This funding provides a unique opportunity to develop improved and sustainable public behavioral health systems that are more adept at meeting the needs of vulnerable people, including those with more complex presentations. This opportunity will provide funding to conduct Psychological First Aid (PFA) trainings within Ohio’s communities and expand knowledge of this evidence-informed approach to behavioral health disaster recovery.

Developed by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) and the National Center for PTSD, Psychological First Aid (PFA) is an evidence-informed approach to helping children, youth, adults, and families in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, natural and human-made. Following a disaster or traumatic event, survivors, witnesses, and/or responders may struggle and face new challenges. “PFA is designed to reduce the initial stress caused by traumatic events and to foster short- and long-term adaptive functioning and coping. PFA does not assume that all survivors will develop severe mental health problems or long-term difficulties in recovery. Instead, it is based on an understanding that disaster survivors and others affected by such events will experience a broad range of early reactions (e.g., physical, psychological, behavioral, spiritual). Some of these reactions will cause enough distress to interfere with adaptive coping, and recovery may be helped by support from compassionate and caring disaster responders.” (NCTSN, n.d., para. 2)

PFA’s core objectives are to provide early assistance within the days or weeks following an event. The eight PFA Core Actions include: PFA can be used by first responders, incident command systems, primary and emergency health care providers, school crisis response teams, faith-based organizations, disaster relief organizations, Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT), Medical Reserve Corps (MRC), and Citizens Corps. PFA is designed to be delivered in diverse settings. These core objectives can be delivered in the field, shelters, medical triage areas, emergency departments and hospital settings, staging areas, respite centers, emergency operations centers, crisis hotlines, feeding locations, disaster assistance service centers, family reception and assistance centers, homes, businesses, and a variety of other community settings to meet the needs of the populations affected.

This funding opportunity seeks to hire a contractor to provide PFA training opportunities to Ohio’s communities and disaster response teams in an effort to reduce stress symptoms and assist in health recovery following a traumatic event, natural disaster, public health emergency, or even a personal crisis.

1. Scope of Work and Deliverables

Contractor will provide four (4) in-person Psychological First Aid trainings in four (4) regions of Ohio and four (4) virtual trainings culminating in eight (8) PFA trainings for Ohio. Each in-person training will register up to 60 individuals allowing for concentrated interaction and group work. Each virtual training will register up to 125 individuals. The Contractor must educate participants on all of the eight PFA Core Actions within their trainings. The Contractor will provide and implement the virtual platform for these trainings.  The Contractor must work collaboratively with OhioMHAS staff to determine the logistics of each training including, but not limited to, dates, times, and registration of each training.
The Contractor must be able to provide Psychological First Aid training outlined within the Background section of this RFA. The selected Contractor shall be a certified Psychological First Aid trainer. Additionally the Contractor must have prior experience: Contractor must provide previous work and references to demonstrate their experience and ability to provide the Psychological First Aid trainings both in-person and virtually. Contractor will provide a description of their virtual platform they intend to use for the virtual Psychological First Aid trainings.
The Contractor will engage with training participants, external, and internal stakeholders. The Contractor will attend meetings with OhioMHAS, as necessary, to successfully complete the scope of work.
Travel to the various regions will be necessary to deliver in-person trainings.
OhioMHAS will be responsible for identifying, selecting, and planning the locations for the in-person trainings. The Contractor will be responsible for set-up and tear-down of the training space at the identified locations.
The Contractor will provide OhioMHAS with copies of all training materials.
The Contractor will provide registration reports to the OhioMHAS lead. The report must include names, licensures, and other identifying information of participants registered for and that have completed the PFA trainings, both in-person and virtual.
Contractor shall not be subject to an “unresolved” finding for recovery under Section 9.24 of Ohio Revised Code. To be eligible to participate in this application process, the proposal must describe the contractor’s qualifications to conduct the identified scope of work activities, expertise, knowledge, and experience. Experience must include examples of conducting similar or related work. The contractor will include in their proposal experience with the behavioral health field, in particular county ADAMHS boards, local health departments, emergency management systems, and first responders.
The proposal should include examples of work similar to the scope of work requested within this RFP.

EVALUATION PROCESS
MHAS’s evaluation process of responses submitted to this request may consist of up to four distinct phases:
1. MHAS’s initial review of all proposals for timely submission;
2. An evaluation committee review of the proposals for defects and scoring;
3. MHAS’s request for more information (clarifications, interviews, presentations, and/or demonstrations); and,
4. Negotiations or best offer requests.

At its sole discretion, MHAS will determine whether phases three and/or four are necessary under this RFP, reserving for itself the ability to eliminate or add phases three or four at any time during the evaluation process. MHAS may add or remove sub-phases to phases 2 through 4 at any time if MHAS believes doing so will improve the evaluation process.

PROPOSAL EVALUATION CRITERIA
In the proposal evaluation phase, MHAS staff or reviewers selected by MHAS (the committee) will rate the proposals submitted in response to this RFP based on the following criteria and weight assigned to each criterion.

Evaluation Criteria	Weight	Rating	Extended Score
Proposer meets the minimum qualifications listed within the Minimum Qualifications of the RFP.	10
Proposer’s references and previous work demonstrate that Proposer has experience and ability to complete the outlined work.	25
Proposer has submitted a technical proposal that is complete, encompasses the requirements within the scope of work, and the quality of the proposal demonstrates proposer’s ability to successfully complete all deliverables in accordance with any timeframes specified.	40
Proposer has submitted a cost proposal that is complete, and the quality of the proposal demonstrates proposer’s ability to successfully complete all deliverables within a budget considered reasonable.	25
		Total	____/500