DBH - Integrating Behavioral Health Emergency Preparedness into Ohio’s Statewide Emergency Management Curriculum

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

SRC0000037013

3/12/2026 2:00:00 PM

The mission of the Ohio Department of Behavioral Health (DBH) is to provide statewide leadership of a high-quality mental health and addiction prevention, treatment, and recovery system that is effective and valued by all Ohioans. DBH strives to be a national leader in implementing a comprehensive, accessible, and quality-focused system of addiction and mental health care and wellness for Ohio citizens.

The mission of the Ohio Emergency Management Agency (Ohio EMA) is to coordinate activities to mitigate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters. The Ohio EMA closely interfaces with local, state, and federal agencies to bring resources of recovery to support Ohioans impacted by disaster. Their activities include education, training, planning, and preparedness – strengthening Ohio’s first responder capabilities and improving communication across the state.

1. PURPOSE

The Ohio Department of Behavioral Health (DBH) is seeking proposals from qualified contractors to develop behavioral health focused training curricula that will be added to Ohio EMA’s training and exercise catalogue; provide project management; develop a behavioral health emergency preparedness/response toolkit to assist communities in sustaining their response infrastructure; and finalize the DBH Behavioral Health Emergency Response Manual. While DBH will oversee the contract and deliverables, Ohio EMA will serve as subject matter experts and provide support to the project.

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 behavioral 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 behavioral health needs in the aftermath of traumatic events and natural disasters within our communities. To address the trauma caused by the massive disruption and loss of life, 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.

“Behavioral health disaster planning recognizes the unique ways mental health and substance use supports should be provided to people and communities after a natural or human-made disaster” both in the immediate and long-term (SAMHSA, 2024). Behavioral health disaster planning and response uses evidence-informed and evidence-based strategies and interventions to support all those affected. While behavioral health crisis services are focused on the psychological distress of an individual, behavioral health disaster planning and response is a coordinated effort to provide behavioral health supports to large groups of people affected by disasters while focusing on managing the widespread effects of trauma on the community as a whole.

Each year, starting in SFY 2023, the Ohio Department of Behavioral Health has awarded funding to Ohio’s mental health boards to create, implement, and/or expand the integration of behavioral health within their county emergency response operations. Through these funding opportunities, communities have reinforced collaborations between behavioral health, emergency responders, and public health stakeholders; Conducted community needs assessments specific to behavioral health disaster preparedness; Developed policies and procedures that promote behavioral health disaster preparedness; Used evidence-based and evidence-informed models to develop readiness to respond to incidents of mass violence; Facilitated and provided disaster preparedness and response trainings for local behavioral health providers; Conducted cross-training and tabletop exercise opportunities with local emergency management systems; Implemented community education to expand knowledge of behavioral health services in the event of an emergency/disaster; and developed comprehensive and community-specific behavioral health disaster preparedness plans.

In SFY 2025, a landscape analysis was completed identifying system gaps, promising practices, and priority recommendations to build a more coordinated and resilient behavioral health disaster response infrastructure across all regions of the state. The landscape analysis underscored the following:

DBH and Ohio EMA seek to complement these local efforts and fulfill the landscape analysis findings by integrating behavioral health concepts within Ohio EMA’s training and exercise catalog. This integration is critical because disasters consistently produce significant mental health, substance use, and stress reactions that affect both survivors and responders. These reactions influence the effectiveness of the overall response. When behavioral health is planned and managed alongside medical, logistics and operations functions, systems are better able to recognize common post-disaster reactions and connect people quickly with appropriate supports to reduce long-term impairments. These impacts must be planned for with the same rigor as other core response functions. Integration of behavioral health in emergency/disaster response management strengthens preparedness before an emergency/disaster by normalizing skills such as psychological first aid, responder self-care, and risk mitigation while ensuring continuity of care for people with behavioral health conditions.

The intent of this work is not to supplant existing state and/or local efforts but to support the enhanced integration of behavioral health within those efforts. This work would build the desired behavioral health disaster response foundation that Ohio can build upon in the future. The proposed deliverables would ensure a consistent, statewide emergency response in emergencies and/or disasters elevating behavioral health and integrated care.

All work outlined in the Scope of Work and Deliverables must be completed by September 29, 2027. Contractor will provide the following:

Project Management
Curriculum Development
Behavioral Health Emergency/Disaster Toolkit
DBH Behavioral Health Emergency/Disaster Response Manual

1. MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS OF CONTRACTOR

The Contractor must be able to provide the deliverables outlined within the Scope of Work and Deliverables section of this RFP. 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 must have:

Contractor shall not be subject to an “unresolved” finding for recovery under Section 9.24 of Ohio Revised Code.

PART FOUR: EVALUATION OF PROPOSALS

1. Evaluation Process

DBH’s evaluation process of responses submitted to this request may consist of up to four distinct phases:

1. DBH’s initial review of all proposals for timely submission;
2. An evaluation committee review of the proposals for defects and scoring;
3. DBH’s request for more information (clarifications, interviews, presentations, and/or demonstrations); and,
4. Negotiations or best offer requests.

At its sole discretion, DBH 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. DBH may add or remove sub-phases to phases 2 through 4 at any time if DBH believes doing so will improve the evaluation process.

1. Proposal Evaluation Criteria

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