The solicitation period for this requirement is very limited as a result of the Prime Minister’s announcement on Monday January 13, 2020 that the Government of Canada would, without delay, implement a mechanism through which will offer families and friends of the victims of Flight PS752 grief counseling.
BACKGROUND
On January 8, 2020, Canada was deeply shocked and saddened to learn that many Canadians were among the 176 victims of the downed Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752. The psycho-social impact of these events on individuals and communities is immense.An important element of ensuring support related to Canadian victims is the availability of mental health supports and timely to access to appropriate grief counselling for impacted individuals and groups. In the event that there are gaps in available support across the country, Health Canada, on behalf of the Government of Canada, is proactively procuring counselling support services to complement other supports provided by faith leaders and organizations, the health care system, workplaces, educational institutions, and other service providers.
DESCRIPTION AND SCOPE OF WORKHealth Canada requires the services of a Contractor who has an established network of professional counselling services that can supplement services already available at the community and provincial/territorial levels. Services must be provided in a timely manner to support individuals and groups in all facets of the grief process.
Services Required· Crisis Counselling: Urgent, on-site counselling may be required. Services can include individual, onsite psychological support and other critical incident stress management interventions. The purpose of this intervention is to address acute psychological responses and ensure the well-being of impacted individuals.· Triage: Urgent triage services may be needed. Triage interventions identify acute needs and seek to address them. Psychological First Aid is an example of this.· Ongoing psychological support: Modalities required to support ongoing psychological needs related to the event. Specific psychological support modalities include grief counselling and support for other symptoms. Ongoing psychological support can include short- to medium-term counselling (i.e. up to one year of support from first session).· Referrals to community resources: It is not possible at this time to identify all psychological injuries that will arise from this event. Complex grief and other trauma-related injuries can be expected. As appropriate, referrals to appropriate community resources should be provided when additional clinical services are required (i.e. assessments, diagnosis or treatment). Knowledge of available community resources is required so that timely and appropriate referrals will be made for individuals with needs outside of the scope of the current proposed services.· Telephonic and video-enabled support: the Contractor shall provide services telephonically when local resources are not available or timelines would be excessively impacted by travel requirements. The Contractor may elect to provide counselling via secure video if family members requiring support have the required computer or smartphone capacity.
Service Access· The Contractor must provide a 1-800 toll-free number, twenty-four (24) hours a day, seven (7)days a week.· Clients must be able to use their official language of choice when accessing services.· When counselling services are requested in Farsi or other languages besides English andFrench, and the Contractor cannot address that need via a network counsellor with that language capability, the Contractor must arrange for translation services.
Clients· Family members of Canadian victims (including spouses/partners, siblings, parents and otherextended family).· Other individuals with very close personal relationships to Canadian victims.· Affected communities (including various community organizations and centres).
Professionals Competencies Required· The Contractor’s professional resources must have a Master’s Degree in the Mental Health Field, i.e. Psychology, Social Work, or Counselling.· Services will be provided in English and French unless the needs of the affected individualrequires otherwise. The ability of the Contractor to provide counsellors who can offer services in Farsi is a definite asset. In the absence of counsellor language skills, translators must berequired. · The Contractor should demonstrate having, via its network of counsellors, a basic cultural competency (i.e. the ability to understand, communicate with, and effectively interact with clients in the context of their community) and the ability to deliver services using trauma and violence informed approaches.
