283-23-0654 Sole_Source_Intent_Notice.pdf

PRE-SOLICITATION NON-COMPETITIVE (NOTICE OF INTENT) SYNOPSIS

INTRODUCTION

THIS IS A PRE-SOLICITATION NON-COMPETITIVE (NOTICE OF INTENT) SYNOPSIS TO AWARD A CONTRACT OR PURCHASE ORDER WITHOUT PROVIDING FOR FULL OR OPEN COMPETITION (INCLUDING BRAND-

NAME).

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA), Division of Contract Management (DCM) on behalf of the Office of Prevention Innovation intends to negotiate and award a purchase order without providing for full and open competition (Including brand-name) to National Academy of Sciences located at 500 Fifth Street NW Washington, DC 20001, for professional services that develop a blueprint, including specific, actionable steps for building and sustaining an infrastructure for delivering prevention interventions targeting risk factors for behavioral health disorders..

NORTH AMERICAN INDUSTRY CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM (NAICS) CODE

The intended procurement is classified under NAICS code 541990, All Other Professional, Scientific, And Technical Services with a Size Standard of 19.5 million.

REGULATORY AUTHORITY

The resultant contract will include all applicable provisions and clauses in effect through the Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2023-04, effective 06/02/2023.

This acquisition is conducted under the procedures as prescribed in FAR subpart 13— Simplified Acquisition and FAR subpart 12— Acquisition of Commercial Products and Commercial Services. This requirement is not expected to exceed the simplified acquisition threshold of $250,000.00.

STATUTORY AUTHORITY FAR 6.302-1

This acquisition is conducted as non-competitive under the authority of 41 U.S.C. 253(c) under provisions of the statutory authority of FAR Subpart 6.302-1 -- Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements.

DESCRIPTION OF REQUIREMENT

Background Preventing substance use and other mental health disorders (i.e., behavioral health disorders) is essential to improving human and public health. Years of research on the epidemiology and etiology of behavioral health conditions has resulted in progress in our understanding of risk and protective factors.

While this foundational research has been translated into effective prevention strategies, not all strategies have been widely translated into effective practice. One of the biggest barriers to the wide-scale implementation of behavioral health prevention interventions is the lack of infrastructure at the national and state levels to support this work. Prevention programs are often embedded in broader societal systems or settings (e.g., schools, justice settings, social service settings, community behavioral health centers) and are, therefore, competing with other services for time and resources. There are also infrastructure barriers to program implementation, including limited financing and workforce to support the delivery of primary prevention. In addition, those on the ground doing the work may not always have access to or knowledge of information about evidence-based prevention programs. This may result in state agencies distributing the federal and state funds they receive for prevention to localities with varying guidance on how they can most effectively be used.

SAMHSA intends to collaborate with the National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) to commission a consensus study to provide a roadmap of steps needed to develop and finance a sustainable infrastructure at the national and/or state level for implementing evidence-based interventions for preventing behavioral disorders. The roadmap would outline the necessary supports and steps to bridge the gap between the development of evidence-based prevention interventions and their uptake and incorporation into clinical practice and community health settings.

OBJECTIVE

1. Identify best practices for creating a sustainable behavioral health prevention infrastructure.

2. Identify funding needs and strategies for behavioral health prevention.

3. Identify specific research gaps germane to the widespread adoption of evidence-based behavioral health prevention interventions

4. Make actionable recommendations

Scope Of Work The National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) will convene an ad hoc committee to develop a blueprint, including specific, actionable steps for building and sustaining an infrastructure for delivering prevention interventions targeting risk factors for behavioral health disorders. In conducting its work, the committee will:

1. Identify best practices for creating a sustainable behavioral health prevention infrastructure.

Review the landscape of behavioral health prevention at different levels (e.g., national and state including evidence-based prevention services); where different levels of these prevention services (e.g., universal, selected, and indicated services) could be delivered (e.g., within the community, health care settings, justice systems, schools, human services settings); the workforce needed (investment and their training); and the data systems necessary to track prevention needs, outcomes, and extent of program delivery. Informed by this review, the committee is tasked with identifying the optimal characteristics and components of a sustainable behavioral health prevention infrastructure. For this infrastructure, the committee should consider embedding prevention services within existing systems and settings, establishing an independent prevention delivery system to which existing systems and settings can refer individuals and families for the receipt of prevention services, and/or other possible approaches by which behavioral health prevention programs can be delivered and sustained.

2. Identify funding needs and strategies for behavioral health prevention. Review current funding sources for prevention, identify ways those funding sources can be better deployed (including ways to facilitate the integration of funding streams at the state level to be more impactful), and identify new or emerging funding sources that could be redirected and deployed in a coordinated effort to support the prevention infrastructure (e.g., use of opioid settlement funds).

3. Identify specific research gaps germane to the widespread adoption of evidence-based behavioral health prevention interventions. Identify key policy and implementation knowledge gaps and the resulting research opportunities that could provide the information needed to support the adoption and sustainment of a national prevention infrastructure for behavioral health. Research gap areas are expected to be identified in the realms of policy research and health services research (e.g., dissemination and implementation, economic analyses, etc.).

4. Make actionable recommendations on how federal and state policies could be expanded or implemented to develop and sustain the behavioral health prevention infrastructure system, including those that improve financing for evidence-based prevention and support workforce development, data interoperability, and evidence-based policymaking. Recommendations for research necessary to fill the prevention services research gap should also be identified.

The following background activities will be conducted to inform the work outlined above:

5. Convene information-gathering meetings with local-level stakeholders. To inform the study, NASEM will conduct a series of information-gathering meetings with relevant stakeholders.

While recommendations for local policies and program implementation are beyond the scope of the current study, hearing the perspectives of community representatives is essential to inform the feasibility of recommendations. NASEM will therefore convene at least one public meeting involving local community experts representing a range of voices and perspectives (e.g., diverse regions of the country, tribes and territories, racial and ethnic minorities, women, sexual and gender minorities, and urban and rural populations) to identify opportunities and barriers to successful implementation at the local level. Given that study recommendations will be made for the national and/or state levels, it is presumed that relevant national leaders in insurance coverage, federal block grants, opioid settlement structures, workforce training and certification, and state-level experts on coverage, implementation, and blending/braiding of federal funding in states, data sharing, workforce, and state-level infrastructure will be included throughout the project.

6. Build on past behavioral health prevention and mental health promotion implementation reports and guidelines. To inform the current study, NASEM will review and summarize previously published reports that provide recommendations related to developing and implementing a national and/or statewide system for delivering behavioral health prevention interventions.

At the conclusion of the study, NASEM will:

Host a Dissemination Event. To galvanize support and build a national consensus around report recommendations, within 3 months after the final report is released, NASEM will convene a dissemination event with the key stakeholders including payors, providers, research funders, and national and state policymakers to help ensure the recommendations are implemented rapidly and with fidelity.

Contract Requirements

• The primary deliverable will be a published consensus study report addressing the items in the task description to be delivered to SAMHSA, NIDA, CDC, and ONDCP.

• NASEM will convene one public workshop involving local community experts representing a range of voices and perspectives (e.g., diverse regions of the country, tribes and territories, racial and ethnic minorities, women, sexual and gender minorities, and urban and rural populations) to identify opportunities and barriers to successful implementation at the local level.

• NASEM will convene a dissemination event with the key stakeholders including payors, providers, research funders, and national and state policymakers to help ensure the recommendations are implemented rapidly and with fidelity.

Other:

• Quarterly electronic Technical Progress Reports

• A Summary of Salient Results (200 words) submitted to SAMHSA, NIDA, CDC, and ONDCP that provides details or highlights of the work performed during the period of performance, due by the final delivery date.

• Publish the final report by the National Academies Press. Publicly released reports are subject to Section 508 requirements shall be provided as Section 508-compliant PDFs to SAMHSA, NIDA, CDC, and ONDCP

• NASEM shall coordinate with the federal sponsors on the number of hard copy reports desired.

Estimated at 20.

• Make the final report available to the public on the NASEM website.

Anticipated Period of Performance Base Period: August 2023 – July 2024

CLOSING STATEMENT

This synopsis is not a request for competitive proposals. However, interested parties may identify their interest and capability to respond to this notice. Responses to this notice shall contain sufficient information to establish the interested parties’ bona-fide capabilities for fulfilling the requirement and include: unit price, list price, shipping and handling costs, the delivery period after contract award, the prompt payment discount terms, the F.O.B. Point (Destination or Origin), the SAM Unique Entity ID (UEI), the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), and the certification of business size must be included in the response. All offerors must have an active registration in the System for Award Management

(SAM).

A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed contract based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. The information received will normally be considered solely for the purposes of determining whether to proceed on a non-competitive basis or to conduct a competitive procurement.

All responses must be received by 08/02/2023 at 10:00 AM EST and must reference solicitation number 283-23-0654 on your electronic request.

Responses must be submitted electronically to arun.mathur@samhsa.hhs.gov.

All responsible sources may submit a bid, proposal, or quotation which shall be considered by the agency.

mailto:arun.mathur@samhsa.hhs.gov