26-54 Bloomington Community Brain Health Services (BCBHS) Program Evaluation

Bloomington Public Health (BPH) is seeking an experienced external evaluator to design and implement a 24-month prospective evaluation using best practices of Bloomington Community Brain Health Services (BCBHS), a community-based program that provides timely, no-cost behavioral health support and connections to ongoing care. BCBHS is embedded within the Bloomington Police Department and coordinated with Bloomington Public Health to meet the needs of individuals after a crisis.
BCBHS provides services through licensed clinicians, supervised graduate clinical therapy interns, crisis follow-up, care coordination, warm handoffs, and community partnerships. Services typically are for 12 weeks and include 10–15 therapy sessions, referrals and resources for continued care, and group therapy or psychoeducation for high school students. Referral partners include law enforcement, social workers, and local public schools. Most individuals enroll in this program after a mental health crisis, within days of initial stabilization. Not counting the group work, around sixty individual clients receive this service each year.
The evaluation will assess program structure and participant outcomes from enrollment through program completion and at sustained follow-up intervals. It should use culturally best practices in client recruitment and retention and incorporate relevant aggregate population-health data when available and feasible. Findings will inform program improvement, accountability, sustainability, and future funding decisions.
The selected evaluator will collaborate with BPH and BCBHS to recommend a rigorous and feasible evaluation design within the available timeline and resources. The design should address outcome measures, cohort structure, follow-up intervals, data sources, comparison approaches, analytic methods, data-collection responsibilities, and applicable privacy requirements. The final evaluation plan will be reviewed and approved by BPH and BCHBS before implementation.

See the documentation and bid access Here