R410--National Safeguard Initiative Against Veteran Suicide

Amendment 0001 - The purpose of this amendment is to 1) change the PSC from R701 to R410, 2 ) to update the NAICS from 541810 to 541618 and 3) add a "Reducing Military and Veteran Suicide: Advancing a Comprehensive, Cross-Sector, Evidence-Informed Public Health Strategy" as a reference document. National Safeguard Initiative Against Veteran Suicide Introduction: This Request for Information (RFI) is for planning purposes only and shall not be construed as a solicitation or as an obligation on the part of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The VA is currently conducting market research to locate qualified, experienced, and interested potential sources. Responses will not be considered as proposals, nor will any award be incurred by interested parties in responding to this announcement. NAICS 541618 (size standard: $16.5 million) applies. In 2012, Executive Order 13625: Improving Access to Mental Health Services for Veterans, Service Members, and Military Families established the Interagency Task Force on Military and Veterans Mental Health. The early work of this Interagency Task Force had a specific emphasis on facilitating interagency collaboration, expanding staffing capacity at the Veteran Crisis Line, and joint development of a national suicide prevention campaign focused on connecting Veterans and service members to resources and support. Further, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has made mental healthcare access and suicide prevention a critical part of its strategic goals. Through early intervention and full access to mental health and suicide prevention services, VHA aims to lead the nation in caring for people with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and associated mental health challenges. This effort is aligned with President Biden s National Mental Health Strategy, which is taking executive action to address aspects of suicide prevention. Objectives: The Government is seeking support services to develop and execute multiple coordinated marketing campaigns for a variety of suicide prevention programs, projects, and initiatives. This support shall include measurable indicators of established objects and the results achieved. As an example, the overarching campaign will seek to address the following six basic objectives. As such, please consider these six objectives upon providing the Government with your statement of capabilities. Problem Definition and Research: World-class treatment of mental health needs must deliver on access, outcomes, cost, clinician experience, and Veteran satisfaction. Simultaneous delivery of all elements is complicated by emergent and acute mental health needs that require health systems to meet veterans when and where they experience a crisis while, at the same time, delivering on the promise of high-quality mental health care for all. To address this challenge, VHA introduced open access scheduling in 2017, whereby clinicians reserve some slots for urgent and emergent needs, but its implementation has not been uniform. As the nation works through the recent rollout of 988, the first three-digit number of suicide and crisis that will route to the Veterans Crisis Line, it is vital that the community-based crisis care continuum to serve Veterans is equipped and ready. Goal Definition: The White House and VA strategy documents referenced above will guide the definition of objectives and development of the overall strategy. Effective nationwide care will rely on timely access to care within VHA s thousands of locations and through its growing virtual care capability centers. While VHA tracks many measures of access today (e.g., referral wait times, ability to receive emergency mental health care), there are limited capabilities to track longitudinal metrics (e.g., scheduling of regular treatment visits) and limited coordination with Veteran experience data. There is also an opportunity to specify what access should be. For any given clinical need, it is important for access to be both effective (e.g., timely and guideline-concordant) and equitable (e.g., whether Veterans of different demographic and socioeconomic groups are afforded access to similar types of care). Addressing these opportunities also requires an integrated approach across the broader crosscutting key activities, including: Strategic Planning Development of a comprehensive plan across priority areas to set the overall aspiration, identify cross-cutting initiatives, and align on key metrics of success. Project Management Standardization of approach to initiative development, resource allocation, and performance monitoring to ensure consistent Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and alignment across stakeholders. Advertising Campaign and Media Buys Overarching campaign to leverage market research, creative design and at-scale media buying power to ensure consistent messaging to the Veteran community across mental health and suicide prevention. Determining the Target Audience(s): Suicide is a complex problem with no single cause and no single solution. Reducing suicide cannot be accomplished singularly through reactive policy change, rather it requires a long-term strategic vision and commitment designed to create and implement systemic changes in how we support target audiences including service members, Veterans, and their families across the full continuum of risk and wellness. Risk factors for suicide among service members and Veterans are both similar and different than those for non-military and Veteran groups. We know, however, that service members and Veterans are at higher risk for some of the common risk factors, including experiencing a mental health condition and having a physical health problem. Selecting Media: To decide which media are best for this campaign, please consider the media our target audience uses most and how the different media align with the goals and budget of the campaign. It is expected that the Government will utilize a mix of different media to target and re-target targeted audiences. Messaging Development: The Government is seeking to define an overall message or sets of messages that will resonate with our target Veteran audience and be useable throughout supporting campaigns. This message must speak to Veteran needs, interests, and experiences. Messaging should be focused on the Veteran and how VHA and DoD mental health services will benefit them. Measuring the Results: Instead of waiting until the campaign is over, the Government seeks to monitor the results of different media throughout the campaign. If one aspect of the campaign is thriving while another is not, making changes to improve the results is expected. Capabilities: Interested parties are encouraged to submit marketing proof of the capabilities described in their capabilities statement. These can be provided in the form of released commercial videos, campaign marketing documents that were customer facing, products designed showing ability to pivot with little notice or direction from the client, demographic study results and resulting marketing actions, campaign awards, etc. A written response providing clear and unambiguous evidence to substantiate the following capabilities/qualifications/skills your company possesses to do the following is requested: Providing a team of industry SMEs who are constantly updating and refining the strategic plan with special attention to the requirement for pivoting messaging due to critical events and trends impacting the target demographic. Conceiving, developing, executing, and evaluating a multi-faceted, multi-channel, national, integrated marketing campaign with proof of impact to healthcare and/or social changes outcomes. Using proven methodologies gleaned from national experience supporting healthcare or nonprofit organizations with a healthcare or social change campaign of at least a $50 million scope and national reach. Accessing a range of organizations to tackle Suicide Prevention marketing related challenges, showing substantial cultural competence, having a high degree of understanding of active duty and Veteran social spaces, Veteran cultures, VA, DoD, and social/political sensitivities around the work that we do. Conducting and presenting analysis that will highlight the criticality of assumptions in relation to demographic outreach and trust building, as well as signal tracking such as monitoring any forecasts that have been made in comparison with actuals and warning when there are unexpected departures of the outcomes from the forecasts. Submittal Information: Contractors having the skills and capabilities necessary to perform the stated objectives should submit a statement of capabilities response. VA and DoD and will not share the submitted capability statements with any entity outside of the VA and DoD. Please note that this RFI is exclusively electronic based; written or telephone responses will not be considered. Your response to the RFI will be utilized to assist VA in evaluating the capabilities of the market and the commercial availability of the services required. Capability statements are limited to 10 pages excluding the released commercial videos, campaign marketing documents, products designed showing ability to pivot, demographic study results, and resulting marketing actions, campaign awards, etc. Responses to this RFI must be submitted by 11:00AM, Eastern Time, on 17 August 2022 to Melissa Ramirez at melissa.ramirez4@va.gov or Christina Heller at Christina.Heller@va.gov. Capability statements shall also contain the following information. The company information will not be included in the page count: Company Information: Provide the following: Company Name and Location(s) where work is performed: Primary Point of Contact Name: POC Phone Number: Company Address: City/Town: Zip Code: Website URL Address: Contact Email: Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) identification number: Business Structure: Socioeconomic Category: Past Experience: Provide the following information on a maximum of three healthcare and/or social changes marketing projects completed for which the responder was a prime or subcontractor. The name, address, and dollar value of each project The Prime Contract Type, Firm Fixed-Price, or Time and Material The name, telephone, and address of the owner of each project A brief description (no more than a few paragraphs) of each project and why it is relevant to this requirement., including difficulties and successes Your company s role and services provided for each project