Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) Psychological First Aid Trainings for DBH

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

SRC0000034879

11/14/2025 2:00:00 PM

1. MISSION & GUIDING PRINCIPLES

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 all Ohio citizens.

1. PURPOSE

The Ohio Department of Behavioral Health ( DBH ) is seeking proposals from qualified contractors to conduct a minimum of four virtual Psychological First Aid (PFA) trainings 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 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 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 (NCTSM) 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/or human-made. Following a disaster or traumatic event, survivors, witnesses, and/or responders may struggle and face new challenges. The NCTSM describes PFA as “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 qualified contractor to provide a minimum of four virtual 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

All work outlined in the Scope of Work and Deliverables must be completed by September 29. 2026. Contractor will provide the following:

Trainings
Contractor Responsibilities
DBH Responsibilities

1. MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS OF CONTRACTOR

The Contractor must be able to provide the trainings outlined within the Scope of Work 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 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.

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

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

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

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

1. Proposal Evaluation Criteria

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