The Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (OhioMHAS) Office of Communication and Marketing Request for proposals Great Minds Fellowship & Wellness Workforce – Marketing

Due date: Proposals must be submitted via the Ohio|Buys website by no later than 2:00 pm EST on the date indicated on the sourcing project.

For the Period: State Fiscal Year 2025 – July, 1 2024 through June, 30 2025

Submit Proposals through the Ohio|Buys website for this particular RFP.

This RFP consists 47 pages. Please verify that you have a complete copy.

Please submit all inquiries about this RFP through the Ohio|Buys website for this

particular RFP. Please refer to Part Three of this RFP, “General Instructions”, for more

information about submitting inquiries. All responses to inquiries submitted by Proposers

will be posted on the RFP Inquiry tab for viewing by all prospective Proposers.

PURPOSE

The Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (OhioMHAS) is

seeking proposals from qualified contractors to market, advertise, and promote the

Great Minds Fellowship to college students enrolled in four-year colleges,

universities, and community colleges throughout Ohio who will be beginning their

coursework in one of several programs of study, using social media platforms,

other digital and traditional media, on-campus marketing channels, search engine

optimization, and other methods.

In tandem or in short succession, OhioMHAS would also like to market, advertise

and promote opportunities within the state’s Wellness Workforce. This campaign

would have a larger target audience and seek to encourage individuals to pursue

opportunities in high-demand behavioral health fields, including social work,

substance abuse and addiction counseling, marriage and family therapy, mental

health counseling, and psychiatric or mental health nursing. This campaign would

be similar in look and feel to the Great Minds Fellowship marketing, but would be

different messaging and target a different, larger audience. The tactics could

include, broadcast television, radio, experimental marketing, event planning,

billboards, social media, OTT or any other channels deemed appropriate by the

vendor. 

BACKGROUND

Each day, 19 Ohioans die prematurely from unintentional overdose or suicide,

ranking these conditions alongside cancer, heart disease, and diabetes as leading

causes of death in Ohio. An estimated 900,000 Ohioans live with a diagnosable

substance use disorder or engage in substance misuse or problem drinking. An

estimated 600,000 Ohioans live with a serious mental illness and an additional 1.4

million live with a mild or moderate mental health condition.

The demand for behavioral health (mental health and/or substance use) services

increased a staggering 353% from 2013 to 2019. Unfortunately, Ohio’s behavioral

health workforce – the counselors, social workers, psychiatric nurses, and other

professionals who provide prevention, treatment and recovery services –

increased at a much slower rate during that time at only 174%. And that disparity

is only expected to worsen without deliberate intervention. Currently, 2.4 million

Ohioans live in communities with an insufficient number of behavioral health

professionals to address the local demand for services.

There are many factors that contribute to this phenomenon, including low staff

salaries, relatively stringent education and licensure requirements in comparison

to those salaries, relatively high student loan debt in comparison to those salaries,

few financial incentives to join the field, poor employee retention efforts, and heavy

caseloads that too often result in employee burnout. Additionally, the

demographics of Ohio’s current behavioral health workforce do not closely reflect

the demographics of the clients it serves, creating issues related to cultural and

linguistic competency.

Moreover, Ohio’s social, academic, and occupational landscape present many

unique opportunities for expansion of the behavioral health field. Ohio is home to

14 four-year public universities with 24 branch campuses, 23 two-year community

and technical colleges and more than 50 four-year private colleges and

universities. Ohio closely approaches the national average in attainment of

associate, bachelor, and graduate degrees, especially in the 25-34 and 35-44 year

old age groups and exceeds the national average in degrees earned per capita,

enrolling approximately 300,000 students into institutes of higher education each

year. Ohio ranks 35th in the U.S. for attainment of at least a bachelor’s degree with

approximately one quarter of Ohio’s adult population having earned one. One

explanation of its slightly lower than average rate of degree attainment and

declining enrollment could be its higher than average tuition.

The Great Minds Fellowship (GMF) is a sensible, thoughtful approach to

addressing the significant discrepancy between the growing need for behavioral

health services and the dwindling pool of professionals committed to meeting that

need. It is ideal for Ohioans looking to make a difference and contribute to growing

a robust, diverse, engaged behavioral health workforce. The goal of the GMF is to

increase the number of Ohioans entering and remaining in the behavioral health

workforce within the next couple of years by incentivizing current college students

in Ohio to pursue careers in this field. The GMF will help students jump start a

successful future in their chosen career path by providing the following incentives:

• 15,000 in academic support via a student’s enrollment in an eligible program via a

participating educational institution”

• 10,000 in recruitment and retention bonuses after employed by a CommunitynBehavioral Health Center”

• 20,000 in loan repayment to former students who graduated in December 2023

through December 2024 who may have been eligible but not supported by a participating institution”

In the following programs of study:

• Social Work

• Clinical/Medical Social Work

• Marriage and Family Therapy/Counseling

• Mental Health Counseling/Counselor

• Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse/Nursing

• Substance Abuse/Addiction Counseling

• Clinical Psychology – Doctoral (pending)

Funding is available now.

In addition to the aforementioned fellowship opportunity, OhioMHAS is committed

to growing the behavioral health workforce by broadcasting the critical need for

these professionals and highlighting the benefits that come along with a career

serving others, including sense of purpose/value, contribution to the greater good,

career advancement opportunities, and more.

IV. SCOPE OF WORK AND DELIVERABLES

The contractor will be responsible developing a comprehensive marketing strategy

to most efficiently hyper-target the intended audience for Great Minds Fellowship,

as well as the larger audience of Ohioans seeking work or interested in

transitioning to a different career path.

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