DMH Notice of Opportunity.docx

Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Mental Health Behavioral Health Services Candidate Referral Program Notice of Opportunity COMMBUYS Document # BD-22-1022-DMH08-8210C-70681

A. Introduction

The Department of Mental Health (DMH) has a strong commitment to meeting the behavioral health needs of underserved individuals, families, and communities. There is a behavioral health workforce shortage in the Commonwealth that is felt acutely by community-based and human services organizations, as well as inpatient services, where thousands of additional trained professionals are needed. In an effort to address this workforce shortage, DMH is seeking to partner with accredited colleges, universities and similar institutions of higher learning (hereafter referred to as “Colleges”) to create a candidate referral Program for qualified participants who are pursuing educational and career opportunities in behavioral health. As part of the Program, Colleges will refer eligible candidates to apply for a variety of entry level positions within DMH. The positions will include, but not be limited to: human service coordinators; milieu therapists; mental health workers; peer specialists; peer support counselors; outreach workers; peer navigators; substance abuse workers; and recovery support staff. Candidates will have to apply for the positions through the Commonwealth’s competitive hiring process. If a candidate referred by the College is selected for employment, the sponsoring College will provide guidance and mentoring to the Program participant during the course of their first year of employment with DMH.

The Candidate Referral Program (Program) goals are:

1. To expand the behavioral health workforce and refer talented recent college graduates for entry-level positions in mental healthcare and substance use treatment;

1. To recruit, promote, and support a behavioral health workforce that is culturally, racially, ethnically, linguistically diverse;

1. To create meaningful service-learning experiences for the Program participants; and

1. To provide guidance and first-hand experience to candidates to support the demand of behavioral health services within the Commonwealth, particularly in communities that have been traditionally marginalized and underserved.

The purpose of this Notice of Opportunity is to inform Colleges of this initiative and to determine what Colleges may be interested in participating. If interested, Colleges should submit a Letter of Interest as described in Section D. Letters of Interest must be submitted through COMMBUYS.

B. Program Overview

· The Program will serve as a gateway to rewarding careers in the behavioral health field and in DMH and in human services organizations and other behavioral health service providers throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts;

· The Program will provide recent college graduates with mentoring and career development to guide the graduates through the hiring process and be provided with the referral opportunity to apply for various behavioral health positions within DMH;

· Program participants, if hired by DMH, will be engaged as full-time, entry-level employees, in accordance with applicable collective bargaining agreements;

· Program participants will have the option to earn academic credits towards the completion of advanced degrees or certification in mental health counseling or a related field;

· Participating Colleges will lead all Program-related marketing, recruitment, and admission efforts.

C. DMH and College Program Responsibilities

DMH will negotiate and enter into a memorandum of understanding with each college partner. At a minimum the memorandum of understanding will include the following responsibilities and duties:

For DMH:

DMH will (1) provide notice of entry level behavioral health jobs it has posted on the Commonwealth’s employment posting portal, MassCareers; (2) notify the College if a Program participant is hired; (3) if a participant is employed by DMH, the participant may apply for the Alternative Work Option (“AWO”) program to adjust their regularly scheduled work hours to enable them to participate in peer mentoring and formal professional development Program activities; and (4) allow the College to identify DMH as participating employer in its Program.

For a College:

The College will (1) be responsible for administrative, marketing and academic/professional support for the Program; (2) as part of its preparation of participants to serve in entry-level behavioral health positions, offer training/education that will include topics related to professional behavior, ethical practices, and case management, among other relevant topic; (3) provide peer mentorship and professional development support to their Program participants hired by DMH at least four (4) hours per week throughout their first year of employment, provided the participants remain enrolled with the Program; and (4) give the participants the opportunity to have hours of mentoring and professional development converted to appropriate hours of class credit should the Program participant seek to further their education at the sponsoring College.

D. Response Instructions (Letter of Interest):

If a College is interested in establishing a Program in partnership with DMH, please submit a Letter of Interest following the below instructions:

Letter of Interest (Responses) Format

The Letter of Interest must be in writing, using single-spaced pages in Times New Roman 12-point font. Please limit your response to no more than 2 pages. The Letter of Interest must be signed by an individual who is authorized to sign contracts on behalf of the College. The Letter should provide a general overview of why, based on the goals of the Program and the responsibilities listed above for colleges, the respondent is qualified and interested in becoming a partner. It must also contain the name, title, email address and telephone number of an individual DMH can contact to discuss the Program and if applicable, to negotiate a memorandum of understanding. Please do not include marketing or promotional material with your response. This information will be disregarded on review. Please keep Letter of Interest to key points to help facilitate review.

This Opportunity shall be available until December 31, 2022, unless earlier rescinded, and may be extended by DMH. While there is no deadline for submission of Letters of Interest, Colleges are encouraged to submit a Letter of Interest as soon as possible, as DMH intends to begin this initiative immediately.

Responses must be summited through COMMBUYS. Please label your response documents with the College’s name followed by: DMH_Partnership_Program_Response.

If you need assistance submitting your response via COMMBUYS, please contact Jerome Collins at Jerome.collins@mass.gov

Useful COMMBUYS Resources:

· Job aid on how to submit a response: http://www.mass.gov/anf/docs/osd/commbuys/create-a-quote.pdf

· Webcast: How to Locate and Respond to a Bid in Commbuys, will familiarize respondents with COMMBUYS terminology, basic navigation, and provide guidance for locating bid opportunities in COMMBUYS and submitting an online quote.

E. Additional Notice of Opportunity Information

1. Use of Information and Costs

Responses to this Notice become the property of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and are public records under the Massachusetts Freedom of Information Law, M.G.L. c. 66, § 10 and c. 4, § 7, cl. 26, regarding public access to such documents. However, information provided to DMH in response to this Notice and identified by the respondent as trade secrets or commercial or financial information shall be kept confidential and shall be exempt from disclosure as a public record (see M.G.L. c. 4, § 7, cl. 26). This exemption may not apply to information submitted in response to any subsequent procurement.

2. Notice Access

This Notice has been distributed electronically using the Commonwealth Procurement Access and Solicitation System (COMMBUYS). COMMBUYS is an electronic mechanism used for advertising and distributing the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ procurements and related files. No individual may alter (manually or electronically) the Notice or its components except those portions intended to collect the respondent’s response.

3. DMH Follow-Up

DMH will contact each College that submits a Letter of Interest on COMMBUYS with in thirty (30) days of receipt, to review the program and if appropriate to negotiate a Memorandum of Understanding.

4. Notice Amendments

DMH may rescind or amend this Notice at any time by posting such rescission of amendment on COMMBUYS. Interested parties are solely responsible for checking COMMBUYS for such postings The DMH accepts no liability and will provide no accommodation to interested parties who fail to check for amendments to the Notice.

Thank You

We encourage you to apply for this opportunity to partner with DMH to meet an urgent public mental health need. Thank you for all you do in support of DMH’s efforts to eliminate gaps in access to critical behavioral health support services throughout the Commonwealth.