The vendor is required to provide r to support the creation and maintenance of the training curriculum and learning management system (LMS) for the new credentialed mental health support specialist (CMHSS).
- The new credentialed paraprofessionals will perform some or all the following functions in community mental health settings.
• Assist with client skill development
• Conduct housing inspections
• Provide transportation
• Support with employment, job searches & accommodations
• Engagement and family support
• Psychiatric rehabilitation assessment
• Recovery planning
• Crisis intervention
• Implement non-clinical elements of care plans
• Service planning and coordination
• Psychoeducational interventions
• Support in health management, social activities, etc.
• Maintain documentation and comply with regs.
• Connections between acute and community referrals
• Collecting information and screenings for functional status & eligibility determination
• Providing advice and guidance on day-to-day problems
• Assist clinical staff
- The successful vendor will work with an agency advisory committee to develop or identify a training curriculum for credential seekers and holders.
- Training curriculum
• Determining what information or knowledge will lead to mastery of each competency.
• Identifying and contracting with content experts to provide trainings for each module in the curriculum.
• After the core competency modules are created, working with the agency advisory committee to identify and create continuing education trainings based on workforce and provider needs.
• Update training curriculum as needed throughout the resulting contract term.
a. The vendor will use these core competencies to develop the training curriculum.
• Workplace skills
o Professionalism 101
o Creating a culture of respect
o Developing good collaboration skills
o Professional growth skills
o Self-care skills
• Professional communication skills
o Developing your professional language
o Professional writing
o Active listening
o Interviewing skills and techniques
o Adapting communication skills across groups
o Reading and using body language
o Developmentally appropriate communication
o Communicating with children and families
• safety and violence prevention
o De-escalation techniques
o Working in the community safely
o Risk assessment skills and implementation
o Safety plan writing
• Mental health-based skills and interventions
o “Knowing your treatment team”
o Mental health basics
o Principles of recovery
o Clinical and psychiatric terminology
o Daily living skills 101
o Trauma-informed skills and care
o Child and adolescent development
o Interventions for special populations
o Behavioral management
o Coping strategy development
o Psychotropic medications 101
o Stress, resilience, and psychological first aid (SRPFA) training
o Motivational interviewing
o Suicide prevention: question, persuade, refer (QPR)
o substance use disorders
o Wellness-self management
o Crushing cravings (tobacco curriculum)
o Maternal mental health
• Client and family engagement skills
o Person-centered care 101
o Establishing rapport
o Collaborative documentation
o Utilizing a strength-based approach
o Maintaining engagement in difficult scenarios
o Empowerment and advocacy overview
o Engaging with children and adolescents
o Family engagement and history
• Administrative skills
o Documentation
o Collaborative skills
o Agency policies and procedures
o Federal, state, and local regulations and laws
o Ethics “do no harm” training
o Mandated reporting
o Agency system of care overview
o Working in schools
o Medicaid and medicare 101: systems literacy
o Diversity, equity, and inclusion cultural awareness, sensitivity, understanding, and humility
o Language access
o Awareness of personal biases and attitudes
o Accessibility for individuals with disabilities
o Engaging individuals across the age span (early childhood through older adults)
o Non-discriminatory care
• Specific skills for different program settings
o CPR and first aid
o Harm reduction
o Substance abuse 101
o Supporting children and adolescents with mental health challenges
• continuing education courses  - Learning management system
• Managing the LMS that hosts the curriculum.
• Organizing the trainings by core competency on the LMS to ensure the curriculum is easy to access.
• Creating a process to enroll credential seekers on the LMS with instructions that are concise and include all relevant links and information.
• Ensuring credential seekers are able to access training materials by providing instructions that are easily available, understandable, and navigable for applicants.
• Creating content for agency public facing website.
• The content will include information on accessing the LMS as well as any other relevant materials.
• Creating a record-keeping system for credential seekers and holders to ensure all trainings are recognized.
• Communicating with the national certification board for behavioral health professionals, who is responsible for administrating the credential.
• Creating a certificate system with an online self-serve account to allow credential seekers and holders to track their training and submit to the credentialing board for certification.
• Creating a data collection system to assess the quality of the trainings and to seek information on desired trainings from credential seekers and holders.
• Updating content in the curriculum as needed based on new evidence or trends.
- Technical assistance
• Providing technical assistance communication preferences for the agency public facing website.
• Preferences should include email, call, and/or chat options; technical assistance hours of availability; technical assistance request response times; and frequently asked questions (FAQ)
• Creating a staffing plan that ensures technical assistance is given in a timely manner (e.g., questions will be answered within two business days).
• Supporting credential seekers and holders with the online self-serve certificate account (e.g., how to access the account? how to download certificates, etc.)
- Project plan development
• Establishing regularly scheduled meetings with the agency team.
• Creating a timeline for deliverables.
• Providing quarterly reports that include evaluations of the training surveys, quantitative data on the number of credential seekers and holders who have taken the trainings, the amount of time it takes credential seekers to complete the training sequence, communication with credential seekers and holders, and communication with the national certification board for behavioral health professionals.
- Contract Period/Term: 5 years
- Questions/Inquires Deadline: May 16, 2025