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.