4. PWS - Injury Prevention Academic Advisor Services.docx

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES Public Health Service

Statement of Work

Injury Prevention Academic Advisor Services 75H70424Q00032

1.1 Mission

The mission of the Indian Health Service (IHS) is to raise the physical, mental, social, and spiritual health of American Indians and Alaska Natives to the highest level.

1.2 Background

The IHS is a federal agency within the Department of Health and Human Services responsible for providing comprehensive health services to American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN). As the principal federal health care provider and health advocate for AI/AN people, the IHS mission is to raise AI/AN health status to the highest possible level.

The burden of Injuries is high in Indian Country. To address this, the IHS IPP promotes building the capacity of tribes and communities by increasing understanding about the injury problem, sharing effective solutions, and assisting communities in implementing programs. Unintentional injury deaths to AI/AN people decreased 59% (1972-2010). Despite substantial strides, AI/AN people continue to experience a higher level of injury burden when compared with other Americans.

Risk factors that contribute to the disproportionately higher injury rates among AI/AN include a greater proportion of young adults as compared to other Americans, rural environments, lack of traffic safety legislation, and a greater number of alcohol-related incidents.

The IHS IPP (https://www.ihs.gov/injuryprevention/) is based on the same public health approach used to effectively control infectious diseases. This approach has four steps: define the problem, identify risk and protective factors, develop and test prevention strategies, and assure widespread adoption of effective injury prevention principles and strategies. Focusing on injury risk factors that can be eliminated or changed, building active coalitions within AI/AN communities, and implementing effective community-specific solutions have reduced the injury epidemic.

The IHS IPP is staffed by IHS DEHS staff at Headquarters, Area, District and field offices. Trained staff, dedicated to injury prevention work, are crucial to reduce unintentional and intentional injury deaths since the needs are still great and there are emerging issues such as opioid overdose deaths.

In response to this need, the IHS IPP developed and offers “core” Injury Prevention training courses to address the public health approach to injuries, injury prevention program design and implementation, coalitions and collaborations, program evaluation, injury data collection and analysis, marketing, advocacy, and program management. The core courses are Injury and Violence Prevention Course 1, 2, and 3. Historically each course length has been 3 days to 3.5 days conducted in-person or virtually. The primary target audience for these courses is tribal community/program members and IHS personnel.

Building on the core courses and the prior experiences of the participants, the IPP also sponsors a 12-18 month Injury and Violence Prevention Fellowship that provides practical knowledge and skills for injury and violence prevention practitioners working in AI/AN communities. It focuses on competency development of the topics in the core courses as well as community interventions, coalition building, injury epidemiology, program evaluation, presentation skills, and fieldwork. The Fellowship was developed in 1987 and has been used to provide advanced skills and training to approximately 314 tribal and IHS personnel. Fellowship participants develop their IVP skills by planning, implementing, preparing a report, and presenting results for one of three types of projects aligned with the public health approach: 1) Problem; Analysis; 2) Program Planning; or 3) Program Evaluation. The Fellowship focuses on applied training where participants work on individual projects involving data collection and/or program implementation and evaluation.

The academic advisor provides extensive oversight for each Fellowship class/cohort and is heavily involved with teaching and administering many aspects of the Fellowship experience.

Additional details about the scope and delivery of Fellowship are available upon request and in the Fellowship Summary 2023-2024 (https://www.ihs.gov/sites/injuryprevention/themes/responsive2017/display_objects/documents/IVP_Fellowship_Summary_2023-2024.pdf).

1.3 Purpose

The purpose of this contract is to provide the Indian Health Service (IHS), Division of Environmental Health Services (DEHS) with an Academic Coordinator and Advisor (to be referred to as the “academic advisor”) to support training components of the IHS Injury Prevention Program (IPP). The academic advisor will be the primary coordinator and facilitator for the IHS Injury and Violence Prevention (IVP) Fellowship and will serve as coordinator and advisor for academic review and revisions to other IPP courses. The academic advisor shall have proven expertise in the following areas: American Indian/Alaska Native culture, medicine, community injury prevention, public health, epidemiology, facilitation methods, classroom and field instruction, adult learning techniques, and curriculum planning, development and delivery. Academic advisor services will require extensive relationship building, clear communication, persistent coordination, and cooperation.

2 General Requirements This section describes the general requirements. The following sub-sections provide details of various considerations for this effort. The following schedule of tasks and deliverables outline the requirements necessary to organize, develop, facilitate, manage, and evaluate comprehensive, injury prevention training.

2.1 Non-Personal Services

The Government shall neither supervise contractor employees nor control the method by which the contractor performs the required tasks. Under no circumstances shall the Government assign tasks to, or prepare work schedules for, individual contractor employees. It shall be the responsibility of the contractor to manage its employees and to guard against any actions that are considered personal services, or give the perception of personal services. If the contractor believes that any actions constitute, or are perceived to constitute personal services, the contractor is responsible for immediately notifying the Contracting Officer (CO).

2.2 Business Relations

The contractor shall successfully integrate and coordinate all activities needed to execute the requirement. The contractor shall manage the timeliness, completeness, and quality of problem identification. The contractor shall promptly identify issues, establish corrective action plans, and effectively manage any subcontractors. The contractor shall ensure customer satisfaction and ensure all contractor personnel display professional and ethical behavior.

2.3 Contract Administration and Management

The following subsections specify requirements for contract, management, and personnel administration.

2.4 Contract Management

The contractor shall establish clear organizational lines of authority and responsibility to ensure effective management of the resources assigned to contract/agreement. The contractor must maintain continuity between the support operations, the contractor's corporate offices and the Indian Health Service, Division of Environmental Health Services (DEHS).

2.5 Contract Administration

The contractor shall establish processes and assign appropriate resources to effectively administer this contract/agreement. The contractor shall respond to Government requests for contractual actions in a timely fashion. The contractor shall have a single point of contact between the Government and Contractor personnel assigned to support this contract/agreement. The contractor shall assign work effort and maintaining proper and accurate time keeping records of personnel assigned to work under this contract/agreement.

The contractor will meet with the Contracting Officer Representative (COR) and IHS officials within 7 days of the contract/agreement award to become acquainted with the DCCS staff, review the Statement of Work (SOW), discuss timelines and deliverables, and to begin initial planning. The contractor and COR will hold a kick-off meeting at the beginning of each option year if exercised to revisit and make adjustments (if necessary) to the comprehensive action plan, quality assurance plan, communications plan, evaluation plan, and project plan, to discuss ongoing tasks in the PWS, and new deliverables for the option year.

2.6 Personnel Administration

The contractor will provide the following management and support as required. The contractor shall maintain the currency of their employees by providing initial and refresher training as required to meet the SOW requirements. The contractor shall provide necessary infrastructure to support contract/agreement tasks.

The contractor will provide administrative support to employees in a timely fashion (e.g., time keeping, leave processing, pay, emergency needs).

2.7 Subcontract Management

The contractor will be responsible for any subcontract management necessary to integrate work performed on this requirement and will be responsible and accountable for subcontractor performance on this requirement. The prime contractor will manage work distribution to ensure there are no Organizational Conflict of Interest (OCI) considerations. Contractors may add subcontractors to their team after notification to the CO or Contracting Officer Representative (COR).

2.8 Contractor Personnel, Disciplines, and Specialties

The contractor will accomplish the assigned work by employing and utilizing qualified personnel with appropriate combinations of education, training, and experience.

The Contractor will provide the necessary resources and infrastructure to manage, perform, and administer this contract/agreement.

2.9 Location and Hours of Work

Accomplishment of the results contained in this SOW requires work at various contractor/subcontractor locations in the continental United States. Normal workdays are Monday through Friday except US Federal Holidays. Federal Workers typically work eight (8) hours per day, 40 hours per week. Flextime workers start not earlier than 0600 and not later than 0900. Core hours of work are from 0900 to 1500 daily. Contractor/Subcontractor employees are expected to be available to IHS staff during core hours.

2.10 Travel / Temporary Duty (TDY)

Contractor travel is required under this contract/agreement. Any travel for training participants is not covered under this contract/agreement.

3. Performance Requirements The Contractor or academic advisor will be the primary coordinator and facilitator for the IHS Injury and Violence Prevention (IVP) Fellowship and will serve as coordinator and advisor for academic review and revisions to other IPP courses. The specific needs for contract support of the IHS Injury Prevention Program are listed below. Details of this need will be provided in the Task and Deliverables section.

1. Coordinate and consult with the IHS Injury Prevention Academic Review Committee (ARC) charged with reviewing and revising all IHS Injury and Violence Prevention courses and Injury and Violence Prevention training material content.

2. Coordinate and conduct the 12-18 month IHS Injury and Violence Prevention Fellowship. Some of the classes will be provided through distance learning/virtual classrooms and some will be provided in-person. Travel will be required. The contractor will assist with Fellowship curriculum review and modifications to ensure the most effective content delivery method.

3. Consult with and provide assistance with injury prevention special training projects or tasks for the IHS Injury Prevention Program Manager.

The period of performance for this contract/agreement is 12 months from date of award with four 12-month option periods. All training must be completed within the stated performance period.

A. INJURY AND VIOLENCE PREVENTION FELLOWSHIP TASKS AND DELIVERABLES (T&D)

4. Tasks

i. In the base year and in option years 2 or 3 of the contract, the contractor will implement the existing Fellowship curriculum, course structure, learning methods, and prepare the schedule for the IHS Injury and Violence Prevention Fellowship. The tentative schedule is as follows:

· Announcement – 60 days after award

· Application deadline – 120 days after award

· Selected Fellows Announced – 150 days after award

· First Course – 8 months after award

· Second Course – 12 months after award

· Other courses – as determined

· Graduation – as determined

In consultation with the IPP Program Manager, courses may be provided via distance learning/virtual classrooms. Primary responsibilities will be to complete learning objectives, assist Fellows with project completion, and conduct graduation/project presentations at a date to be determined, in Rockville, Maryland or location designated by the IHS IPP Manager.

ii. Travel is required. Expected contractor requirements:

1. Two (2) trips to Rockville, Maryland (9 days total)

2. Two (2) trips to Atlanta, Georgia (CDC) (9 days total)

3. Two (2) trips to an IHS field location (10 days total) Additional travel may be requested by the IHS IPP Manager for project support:

1. One (1) trip to Rockville, Maryland (5 days total)

iii. Assist the IHS IPP Manager in the planning, organizing, and selecting participants for each Injury and Violence Prevention Fellowship class/cohort.

iv. Plan the 12-18 month experience for each Fellowship class/cohort, organize speakers, ensure effective curriculum design and delivery, and provide evaluation for the Fellowship experience. This includes implementing and coordinating up to seven classes (in-person or virtual), the graduation and presentation of final projects, and assist the Fellows prepare for additional advanced training (e.g. complete a course at a university).

v. Provide printed or electronic copies of training materials to Fellows as deemed necessary.

vi. Assist and support mentors assigned to each Fellow. Mentors will be assigned from personnel in Area/District IHS Environmental Health programs and possibly from Injury Prevention practitioners outside of IHS.

vii. Monitor Fellow progress through phone calls, email, letters and/or face-to-face meetings to assure timeline and completion of Fellow’s research projects.

viii. Assist in the design, implementation and analysis of individual Fellow projects.

ix. Provide oversight in Fellow progress during the training period.

x. Assist in preparation of Fellowship project work for publication in peer reviewed journals, poster presentations, and other means of public dissemination.

xi. Prepare for a third Fellowship class/cohort.

5. Deliverables

i. Provide a written handbook to guide Fellows in requirements, course descriptions, and deliverables.

ii. Provide written report(s) of each training session.

iii. Develop written Fellowship entry evaluations for each student to assess Injury Prevention competency strengths and weaknesses.

iv. Develop education plans for each student that address identified weaknesses.

v. Develop written Fellowship exit evaluations for each student to assess changes in Injury Prevention competencies.

vi. Provide a written summary report of the Fellowship class/cohort and experience.

vii. Provide final copies of each Fellows’ project in a Fellowship compendium.

viii. If exercised, beginning in the second year of the contract (Option year 1), provide a written curriculum for the 12-18 month Fellowship.

B. COURSE CURRICULUM REVIEW & REVISION T&D

1. Tasks - these tasks will be assigned as projects with a defined timeframe to complete.

i. Coordinate meetings/calls of the IHS Injury Prevention Academic Review Committee (ARC) to determine if content and teaching modalities for the Fellowship, the core courses [Injury and Violence Prevention Course 1, 2, and 3] require updating. This includes the existing distance-learning delivery/instructional methods that support synchronous and asynchronous learning environments.

ii. Based on findings and decisions of the Academic Review Committee, revise documents and materials such as teaching curriculums, training outlines, data collection methods and other resources materials.

iii. If needed, coordinate pilot course(s) and conduct secondary revisions to curriculum, outlines, resource materials, and delivery.

iv. Provide printed or electronic copies of training materials to participants as deemed necessary.

v. Design the curriculum, conduct, and record a train-the-trainer course that includes 2-hours of on-demand webinar(s) covering material that will prepare instructors to host any of the three injury and violence prevention courses (e.g. become a confident IHS IVP Short Course instructor).

2. Deliverables – as assigned for each task

i. Provide meeting minutes and record of decisions from each Academic Review Committee meetings.

ii. Provide final versions of any updated teaching curriculums, training outlines, data collection methods and other resources materials documents assigned from the Academic Review Committee.

C. CONSULTATION TO IHS IP PROGRAM MANAGER T&D

1. Tasks – these tasks will be assigned as projects with defined a timeframe to complete.

i. Advise on clinical and public health aspects of injury prevention.

ii. Assist with developing reports, information summaries and presentations.

iii. Assist with design, implementation, and evaluation of Area IVP Projects.

iv. Draft a justification why the IHS Injury Prevention Program should be renamed as the Injury and Violence Prevention Program and assist with the official name change.

2. Deliverables – as assigned for each task.

i. Complete assigned tasks and any associated products.

1. Draft reports, information summaries and presentations.

2. Work with Fellowship graduates and IHS staff to submit manuscript(s) for publication or abstracts for presenting verbal/poster presentations. This involves soliciting, coordinating, and providing author(s) with editing suggestions prior to manuscript/abstract submission. Assist with responses to reviewer comments and resubmission of the manuscript/abstract as needed.

3. Provide a written document justifying and supporting the IHS IP Program Manager to seek approval for an official program name change.

D. OTHER

1. Reports

i. The Contractor shall submit quarterly progress reports electronically to the COR and the IHS IPP Manager by the 1st day of each quarter. Quarterly progress reports shall address the following topics as a minimum:

1. Quarterly summary of progress, accomplishments and status of tasks and deliverables.

2. Narrative summary of the quarter’s activities.

3. Roadblocks and issues, along with the recommendations for resolution.

4. Future activities and goals.

ii. The Contractor shall conduct monthly conference calls with the IHS IPP Manager and COR to provide updates and recommendations on the status of Fellows’ progress, and other ongoing work or projects.

iii. The Contractor shall abide by all regulations regarding use of Federal government information, data, and records.

iv. The Contractor shall return all records to the IHS within 90 days of the end of the contract.

4.1 Storage and Disposition of Materials

Disposition of any national training and marketing materials will be determined in the Start-Up meeting. Storage should be available as soon as national materials are generated. A disposition schedule will be discussed with the COR during the Start-Up meeting.

4.2 Deliverables

The contractor shall provide deliverables as described below and in subsequent requests within the scope of this contract/agreement. The CO must be notified of any issues or questions regarding scope before any action is taken. The format and delivery schedule for deliverables shall be discussed during the kick-off meeting and at other times during the performance period as needed.

4.3 Deliverables Table

Tentative schedule:

•Announcement – 60 days after award •Application deadline – 120 days after award •Selected Fellows Announced – 150 days after award •First Course – 8 months after award •Second Course – 12 months after award •Other courses – as determined •Graduation – as determined

Course Curriculum Review & Revision: coordinate pilot course(s) and conduct secondary revisions to curriculum, outlines, resource materials, and delivery

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