SOURCES SOUGHT
R -- Adolescents in Multiple Service Systems
- Notice Date
- 6/13/2006
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541611
— Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, Program Support Center, Division of Acquisition Management, Parklawn Building Room 5-101 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD, 20857
- ZIP Code
- 20857
- Solicitation Number
- Reference-Number-144618
- Response Due
- 6/23/2006
- Archive Date
- 7/8/2006
- Description
- SOURCES SOUGHT ONLY Corporate Capabilities for MOBIS: SIN 874-1, Consulting Services. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) Office of Human Services Policy Title: Adolescents in Multiple Service Systems and Their Transition to Adulthood Issue Background: The transition to adulthood, often defined as the period from ages 18 through 24, continues to be a time of development. During this time frame, young people face a multitude of challenges, including making choices about education or employment, leaving the parental home, establishing relationships with peers, making independent decisions and learning to accept responsibility for one?s actions. Researchers have estimated that between 5 and 7% of youth will not make a successful transition to independent adulthood by age 25. Adolescents with mental health issues are more likely than those in the general population to have difficulty transitioning to adulthood. According to a report released by the Surgeon General, approximately one in ten children experience mental health problems that interfere with normal development and functioning each year. There is a higher prevalence of mental health issues for youth in the juvenile justice, child welfare, and runaway and homeless systems than for youth in the general population. Adolescents who have not transitioned successfully tend to have grown up in poverty and to have limited family support systems. Some also experience interruption or termination of many supportive services at age 18 when most youth age out of various service systems. Aging out of youth-oriented care is a significant obstacle for these young adults because they may lose access to health care, mental health services, housing, and protective services such as runaway and homeless shelters for youth. Researchers tend to focus on a single vulnerable population, rather than study youth who overlap multiple systems. Yet, involvement with one service system is often associated with an increased risk for involvement with another system. For example, a growing body of research indicates that childhood maltreatment is a risk factor for a range of negative outcomes, including mental health symptoms and disorders, delinquency, and academic failure. Abuse and neglect during childhood are risk factors for homelessness: across samples, between 50% and 75% of homeless youth have been physically abused, sexually abused, or both. Another study of homeless youth found that living on the street puts youth at greater risk for sexual or physical victimization as well as involvement in the juvenile or criminal justice systems. Project Background: This project will use the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) to examine the trajectories of adolescents with mental health needs as they transition to adulthood, paying particular attention to adolescents who have had contact with multiple service systems, including mental health, child welfare, juvenile justice, and runaway and homeless programs. Because of the longitudinal design and the scope of the survey, the Add Health data set provides a unique opportunity to identify a recent cohort of youth who have needs addressed by various service systems and to follow them as they transition and enter adulthood. Policymakers and program administrators often lack information about how best to serve adolescents with mental health issues, especially those who are involved with more than one youth-oriented system. Analysis of this data will inform decisions surrounding the coordination of child and family service systems. Add Health is a longitudinal nationally representative study that explores the causes of health-related behaviors of adolescents in grades 7 through 12 and their outcomes in young adulthood. Add Health seeks to examine how social contexts influence adolescents' health and risk behaviors. Data from students, parents, school administrators, and others were collected in three waves. The first 2 waves of data were collected between 1994 and 1996. These Waves look at influences (e.g. family, relationships, schools, and personal traits) on adolescent behavior. Add Health respondents were re-interviewed in a third wave when they were between 18 and 26 years old to look at the influence that their adolescence had on young adulthood. More detailed information about Add Health is available at http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth A possible task order will be used to perform a secondary data analysis of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). As part of the analysis, substantial effort and consideration will be spent on identifying and characterizing the youth of interest as described; Specifically, how well do the data capture adolescents in multiple social service systems and what variables will be used to identify them for the analyses? The analysis will require firms to use multiple waves of data in order to analyze the domains of interest cross-sectionally as well as identifying changes over time. Through this analysis, ASPE hopes to gather insights into the trajectories of adolescents with mental health needs as they transition to adulthood. This task order requires firms to have contractual agreements in place and access to the restricted-use Add Health data files at the time of award. To address the research questions, only firms with demonstrated experience using multivariate analysis and familiarity with Add Health data will be considered for award. ASPE is seeking statements of corporate capabilities with respect to this procurement. Interested firms are encouraged to: Describe the firm?s experience in research on topics related to adolescents with mental health issues with a specific emphasis on those pertaining to the areas of foster care, juvenile justice and runaway and homeless youths; Demonstrate corporate experience conducting longitudinal analyses using the Add Health dataset (public-use or restricted-use); Demonstrate corporate expertise with using multivariate analysis and growth curve analysis; Demonstrate understanding of how Add Health has been used previously to explore developmental trajectories and adult outcomes; Identify personnel with knowledge of key federal programmatic and policy issues related to mental health, foster care, juvenile justice, and runaway and homeless adolescents; Identify the staff person who would likely be proposed as the project director for a task order on this topic; and Provide documentation of access to the restricted-use ADD Health data. Describe the firm?s capability and experience using longitudinal data sets that examine child well-being outcomes (e.g. NSCAW, NLSY). The purpose of this is to determine whether there are sources with the requisite qualifications to perform the work described above. Any organization capable of performing the work should submit a statement of capabilities with documentation supporting its ability to meet the Governments requirement as described above by 3:00 pm EST, June 23, 2006. No solicitation document is available at this time For further information, contact Chris Ganey in Room 5-101, DHHS/PSC/SAS/DAM Parklawn Building, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, Maryland 20857, or on 301-443-2475. Please send capability statements by e-mail to: Christopher.Ganey@psc.hhs.gov
- Record
- SN01068407-W 20060615/060613220343 (fbodaily.com)
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