Psychological Risk Assessments Services

Psychological Risk Assessment services

This requirement is for: The Correctional Service of Canada, Atlantic Region.

Trade agreement: This procurement is not subject to any trade agreement.

Tendering procedures: All interested suppliers may submit a bid.

Competitive Procurement Strategy: lowest priced compliant bid.

Set-aside under the Procurement Strategy for Indigenous Business: This procurement is not subject to any set-asides for Indigenous Suppliers.

Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement: This procurement is not subject to a Comprehensive Land Claims Agreement.

Security Requirements: This contract includes security requirements.

Nature of Requirements:

The following is a summary of the statement of work for this requirement.

The Correctional Service Canada (CSC) Health Services require the services of a psychologist for offenders housed at the Nova Institution for Women.

Objectives: Provide psychological risk assessment services to offenders, as requested by the Project Authority, at Nova Institution for Women as a psychologist.

Deliverables:

• The Contractor must take into account gender, cultural, religious and linguistic differences and be responsive to the special needs of women and Indigenous People.

• The Contractor must provide all services in compliance with federal and provincial legislation and standards, provincial and national guidelines, practice standards and CSC Policy/Guidelines including the CSC Mental Health Policy and guidelines.

• The Contractor must provide services in accordance with the ethical and professional practice standards of the applicable provincial regulatory body, the Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists and relevant legislation guiding the practice of Psychology within correctional settings.

• The Contractor is expected to consult with the Project Authority to ensure that all psychological practices are consistent with the relevant and most current legislation, practice standards and policies.

• On a yearly basis or as determined by the Project Authority, the Project Authority or designate will review a sample of reports to determine if they meet CSC and professional standards for psychological reports. If a report is judged to be substandard, the Contractor must amend the report as requested at no extra cost to the Crown. The amendment must be completed and the amended report submitted to the Project Authority within one (1) week following the date when the amendment was requested.

• Timeliness of the submission of all reports will be monitored on an ongoing basis by the Project Authority. Timeliness will form part of the assessment of the Contractor's work.

Psychological Risk Assessment Services:

The following is a summary of the tasks the Contractor must perform:

a. The Contractor must perform and submit psychological risk assessment reports to the CSC Project Authority and designates CSC representative for disclosure to third parties, including the Parole Board of Canada;

b. Dates and times for offender interviews will be set-up by mutual agreement between the Project Authority and the Contractor;

c. The Contractor must conduct assessment interviews, administer all psychological tests (unless prearranged for self-report measure – see part f, below), interpret test results, and review offender files. Relevant files include Sentence Management, Case Management, and health files. However, on occasion and if relevant to the specific case, the Contractor must review the Security Intelligence files or, alternatively, consult with Health Care Professionals or Security Intelligence staff, or both about the client. The Contractor must also consult other CSC personnel about the client’s referral or behaviour or both if necessary. The Contractor must integrate information obtained through testing, file review, clinical interview, and if relevant, staff member interviews, into a comprehensive psychological risk assessment report;

d. The Contractor must provide the Project Authority and designates with all original test data;

e. The Contractor must use the file-based Statistical Instrument in Recidivism – Revised (SIR- R) test results if available on file (the SIR-R does not apply to Indigenous and Women offenders), at least one other clinician rated actuarial measure measuring risk and needs that has been shown to be reliable and valid for use with offender populations according to published work. The Contractor may use measures of personality and intellectual functioning. The Contractor must interpret all tests in a standardized manner using the norms supplied only by the test publisher or author, or both. Placement of percentiles tests scores in reports is acceptable when deemed necessary by the Contractor, as part of the standardized test reporting process, or when requested by the Project Authority. Reports must not contain raw test scores under any circumstances;

f. In the event that the Contractor negotiates with a particular site to have CSC staff administer self-report measures including those assessing personality and intellectual functioning, or to have them provide recent relevant scores from in-house test administration, and thus does not administer these tests, the Contractor shall apply a discount of 5 % per assessment, for each relevant case;

g. Psychological Risk Assessment reports must comply with the following requested content and format. Sections may be added to the standardized format according to case-specific needs. Please note that this format is not necessarily all-inclusive, but represents the minimum number of areas to be covered:

i. Demographic information;
ii. Reason for Referral;
iii. Interview Information;
iv. Documentation Reviewed;
v. Brief Criminal History;
vi. Institutional and/or Community Adjustment;
vii. Brief Psychosocial/Relevant History;
viii. Interview Impressions/Mental Health;
ix. Summary of Previous Assessments;
x. Cognitive Functioning and Personality;
xi. Treatment Needs/Responsivity;
xii. Assessment of Risk, Risk Management Strategies and Recommendations;
xiii. Offender and Contractor Signature Block:

h. The Contractor must only make recommendations for mental health counselling in instances where the offender is at acute risk of self-harm or harm to others, where there is a clear need for such counselling to assist the offender in maintaining mental and emotional stability or as it pertains to criminogenic factors and risk. Recommendations for counselling should be generic as to the practitioner who will be providing the service and for community release cases must take into account the offender's motivation (i.e., motivated offenders will not need this as a condition of parole). Should it be felt that mental health counselling must be a condition of parole, it must be established in the report that:

i. The offender needs such counselling for safe reintegration; and
ii. It is necessary to impose such a condition to ensure that the offender participates.

All recommendations for counselling must include the reason for the need for this service, the goals, and comments on the possible duration;

i. The Contractor must share the final report with the assessed offender. The Contractor must document that information sharing has occurred by having the offender sign and date the original report. If the offender refuses to sign, the Contractor must note this on the report and information sharing requirements will be considered to have been met;

j. The Contractor must advise the Project Authority if they are unable to share the reports and coordinate signatures with the offender. At the discretion and prior approval of the project authority, CSC will assume the information sharing and offender signature responsibility;

k. The Project Authority or designate will refer any questions or concerns the offender has on the report back to the attention of the Contractor. While under contract with CSC, the Contractor must answer questions posed by an offender regarding a report for a two (2) year period after sharing the report;

l. The Contractor must submit completed reports to the Project Authority or designate no later than four (4) weeks from the date of referral. The Contractor must share the completed report with the offender no later than 2 weeks after initially interviewing the offender. Upon request of the Contractor, and at the sole discretion of the Project Authority, either or both of these deadlines can be extended for a period not exceeding four (4) weeks;

m. The CSC Mental Health Department will enter finalized psychological risk assessment reports into the electronic health record and OMS, and ensure that a copy has been share- printed to the Parole Board of Canada;

n. If requested by the Project Authority or designates, the Contractor must submit a completed emergency risk assessment no later than five (5) business days from the date of referral;

o. CSC is required to complete Judicial Review Risk Assessments for some offenders. At the request of the Project Authority, the Contractor must complete a Judicial Review Risk Assessment and assume any future court costs related to the case assessed;

p. The Contractor must collect information related to the dynamics of the offence, identify treatment needs and risk factors and determine the sexual offender's suitability for individual or group treatment programming. These assessments can also be carried out at intake or pre-release. When an assessment of a sexual offender is requested, the Contractor must provide, in addition to the above content, a comprehensive description of psycho-sexual development, sexual misconduct and offenses;
q. Specific content references to be included but not limited to in this description would be: history and development of sexual behavior, information pertaining to prior child abuse, domestic abuse or violence against women perpetrated by the offender whether sexual or otherwise, information pertaining to co-offending and the relationship with the current sexual offense or sexual offense pattern, any attitudes supportive of sexual offending and sexual abuse, relationship problems particularly as they relate to intimacy deficits and social competence, factors relevant to their sexual offending (i.e., sexual self-regulation, intimacy issues, general self-regulation), general antisocial characteristics and psychopathology that may influence sexual offending and misbehaviour, and relevant medical history. Previous assessment results, including assessment of deviant sexual preference and prior programming results should also be considered. Psychological risk assessments of sexual offenders should attend to risk variables based on empirically based, clinician-rated measures of actuarial, static and dynamic risk that focus on sex offence specific factors where possible; and

r. For male sex offenders, it is mandatory for the Contractor to use the STATIC-99R for all sexual offender risk assessments (including non-contact offenders, but not offenders exclusively involved in child pornography). Dynamic risk must be assessed using a clinician rated actuarial measure that has been shown to be reliable and valid (e.g., STABLE-2007, VRS-SO or the RSVP). For cases where there is currently limited data specific to that population (e.g., child pornography only offenders) then the Contractor must use a measure that is based on the available evidence (e.g., CPORT). No sex offending risk and recidivism actuarial measures are to be used for women sex offenders.

The services the Contractor must provide also include but are not limited to the following:

a. Participate in meetings as a consultant including case conferences, the Interdisciplinary Mental Health Team or the Correctional Intervention Board and other related activities as requested;

b. Participate in CSC training, including orientation to CSC and CSC’s risk assessment requirements as requested;

c. Provide consultation services for the resolution of CSC internal offender grievance and investigative processes as requested; and

d. Prepare and submit psychological assessment and other reports as requested by the Project Authority.

The Contractor must provide a verbal report to the Chief, Mental Health Services and/or other pertinent staff immediately subsequent to the interview for any cases that are at risk of suicide/self-harm, or are obviously mentally ill or unstable.

Language of work: The services are to be provided in English.

Any conditions for participation of suppliers not specified in solicitation documentation: none.

Estimated quantity of commodity: see solicitation document statement of work and basis of payment.

Duration of Contract and Time Frame for Delivery:

Period of the Contract: The Work is to be performed during the period of April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025 with the option to renew for two (2) additional one-year periods.

File Number: 21250-24-4601648

Contracting Authority: Sylvie Gallant
Telephone number: 506-378-8724
E-mail: Sylvie.Gallant@csc-scc.gc.ca

NOTE TO BIDDERS: Bidders can obtain the complete statement of work and evaluation criteria by downloading the solicitation document and associated documents from the Canada buys / tender opportunities website.

The Crown reserves the right to negotiate with suppliers on any procurement.

Documents may be submitted in either official language of Canada (English or French).

After contract award, bidders may request a debriefing on the results of the bid solicitation process. Bidders should make the request to the Contracting Authority within fifteen (15) working days of receipt of the results of the bid solicitation process. The debriefing may be in writing, by telephone or in person.

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