Specific procedures to be implemented in response to emergencies and/or potential disasters, including those identified in the Hazard Vulnerability Analysis, are contained in the Hillcrest Emergency Manual, which contains both agency wide and campus/program specific procedures.

The Emergency Manual is available at numerous locations and sites throughout each residential campus and centrally at the day program. It is reviewed at least annually, and updated as needed. At least once each year, all copies of the Emergency Manual are collected and reviewed to insure that all updates have been included in each copy.

The Hillcrest Maintenance Department utilizes a rotating on-call/emergency maintenance cell phone for nights and weekends.

1) WEEKDAY WORK HOURS
Emergencies/concerns during the regular Maintenance workday (Mon – Fri, 7am – 3pm) should be directed to the campus maintenance staff.

2) NIGHTS AND WEEKENDS
In the event of a maintenance emergency between 3pm and 7am during the week, or on the weekends call the maintenance emergency cell phone at # 413-770-9425.  Leave a message if necessary and the maintenance staff on call should return your page within 15 minutes.

If you do not receive a return call within the designated time frame, go to the Maintenance Emergency On Call List located in the Emergency Manual.

Mitigation Activities General –
The purpose of mitigation activities is to prevent hazards from developing into disasters, or to reduce the effects of disasters when they cannot be prevented. Mitigation can help to maximize safety for students and staff, reduce or eliminate the need for an emergency response and greatly reduce the recovery period. For emergency preparedness and management, Hillcrest focuses on both structural and non-structural mitigation activities.

Structural mitigation activities include:
• Emergency power generators that are regularly inspected and serviced.
• Monitoring long term weather forecasts during storm seasons.
• Utilization of NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) weather radios at all residential and service sites.
• Utilization of computer desktop and cell phone weather and emergency applications with severe weather alert capability.
• The maintenance of essential emergency provisions and supplies, including water, food, student medications, gasoline for agency vehicles and gas powered generators, and propane for propane powered generators.
• The utilization of Hillcrest owned and operated snow removal vehicles and equipment capable of managing even blizzard conditions.

Non-Structural mitigation activities include:
• Staff training in emergency response policies and procedures, including those for evacuation to local and/or distant relocation sites.
• Regularly scheduled fire and disaster evacuation drills.
• Supervisor and Assistant Supervisor training in generator operations (for manually operated generators).
• Before the storm season begins, a thorough hazard surveillance inspection of the facility (exterior) grounds and the remediation of any potential exterior hazards (e.g., overhanging tree limbs; inadequately secured power or communications cables).
• Maintain a current on-call list of trained fill-in staff to accommodate absences.
• Maintain relationships with local and regional emergency responders, consult with and communicate periodically with them about all phases of emergency management, and utilize whatever relevant education and trainings resources they offer.

A) Loss of electric power is relatively rare (0 – 3 times/ year) and, most commonly, for very short periods of time (less than one hour) when it does occur. These losses are managed through the use of emergency power generators at each Hillcrest residential campus. The generators are positioned to insure safety, the maintenance of relative comfort for students (e.g., heating systems in designated locations), and adequacy of food storage. Hillcrest is in the process of transitioning from the use of manually operated, gasoline powered generators to automatic, propane-powered generators.

In the event of loss of power at the day education program, Housatonic Academy, students can be transported back to their residences.

B) Staff travel – Thanks to the effectiveness of the local municipalities in performing snow removal and road maintenance activities during winter months, staff travel is rarely affected. If staff travel is affected for short periods (e.g., half a day), agency staff with four wheel drive vehicles can and will assist with staff transport to/from work sites, as possible.
Hillcrest also maintains a current list of trained fill-in staff to accommodate absences.

Staff who are unable to travel home after work can be temporarily housed on campus, as necessary, separate and apart from students.

Hillcrest also has a mandating policy that requires staff who are working to continue working past the end of their shift if necessary and directed to do so due to inadequate coverage. If necessary, the agency will implement the mandating policy to insure staffing ratios necessary to keep residents and staff safe.

In the event of severely inclement weather, the day education program at Housatonic Academy would be cancelled, as it is when local public schools are cancelled due to weather.

Similarly, the outpatient program, Hillcrest Psychological Services, will cancel appointments and/or close In the event of severe inclement weather.

A Hazard Vulnerability Analysis conducted annually by Hillcrest has determined that, due to the agency’s location, potential disasters most likely to have impact on safety, care and treatment provided by Hillcrest Educational Centers are “natural disasters” and primarily those secondary effects associated with winter weather, and particularly electrical power loss at the residential program sites, and/or the ability of staff to travel to/from the work site.

In particular for the New England region, winter storms seem to be increasingly becoming emergency events and the U.S. is increasingly dependent on electrical-powered equipment as our aging electrical power infrastructure and distribution systems become more stressed from daily over usage.

DISASTER: A disaster is a natural or manmade event,
A. that significantly disrupts the environment of care (e.g., damage to program buildings and/or grounds due to severe wind storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, or earthquakes), or
B. that significantly disrupts care and treatment (e.g., loss of utilities due to floods, civil disturbances, accidents, or emergencies within the organization or in the surrounding community).

EMERGENCY: An emergency is an unexpected or sudden event, human-made or natural or in combination, that significantly disrupts an organization’s ability to provide care, treatment, or services, or disrupts an organization’s setting.

I. Purpose
The Emergency Management Plan is developed and implemented in order to:
• Ensure a safe and supportive environment of care for Hillcrest students, clients and staff.
• Ensure the efficient and effective provision of student care and treatment.

II. Objective
The primary objective of the Emergency Management Plan is to maximize the safety and well-being of Hillcrest students, clients and staff by preparing for, managing and minimizing destructive effects of disasters or other emergencies that have the potential to disrupt Hillcrest’s provision of care and treatment.
This objective will be accomplished through the following types of emergency/disaster associated activities:
• Mitigation – activities intended to lessen the severity and impact of a potential disaster or emergency.
• Preparedness – activities intended to build capacity and identify resources that may be utilized if a disaster or emergency occurs.
• Response and recovery – immediate and near future activities to be conducted in the event of an emergency or disaster.

Additionally, Hillcrest will accomplish this objective in a manner compliant with regulations promulgated by the Mass. Dept. of Early Education and Care (DEEC), Mass. Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), standards established by the Joint Commission (JC), and all other applicable laws, regulations and standards.

The areas in which all Hillcrest sites are located, including three campuses, the day program, and Central Administration office operations, are categorized as “suburban”. All have relatively easy access to the local resources detailed below.

The following local resources can be utilized to mitigate and/or respond to emergencies and/or disasters.
A) Local Fire Departments, local and State Police units – These well-coordinated agencies usually function as Emergency Management Agencies in the towns in which Hillcrest operates.
B) Local hospitals and medical facilities – Located in Pittsfield and Great Barrington. Additional medical facilities are located within manageable distances in various directions, for example, to the north (e.g., North Adams), east (e.g., Springfield, MA) and to the west (e.g., Troy and Albany, NY).
C) American Red Cross – Located in Pittsfield. ARC provides disaster relief coordination and services.
D) Lodging – Because it is a tourist and business area, there is a plethora of hotels and motels that can provide shelter as necessary.
E) Local private and public schools, houses of worship, and other large facilities which could temporarily house groups of people during emergency conditions.
F) Numerous gasoline service stations in close proximity to each campus at which gasoline for the emergency power generators can be obtained.

Each Hillcrest residential campus is equipped with between one and three emergency power generators that can be utilized almost indefinitely in the event that electric power is lost for any significant period. The generators are deployed so that, minimally, heat, light and some refrigeration can be maintained to insure student safety and relative comfort.

Each residential campus is equipped with one or more weather radios that are strategically located within ear shot of staff and which are left plugged in, with battery back up, at all times. Weather radios provide weather warnings and emergency notifications transmitted by the national weather service.

Each residential campus has awake staff and supervisor coverage 24 hours per day, 365 days per year, and all campus have communication capability supported by walkie-talkies that can access local emergency assistance channels. Additionally, all Hillcrest buildings are equipped with fire extinguishers, and all HEC dormitories are sprinkler equipped. At each campus, the residential and overnight shifts perform fire drills each quarter in the dorm buildings, and the academic shift conducts fire drills each month in all areas used as classrooms. Two disaster evacuation drills are conducted each year, and emergency preparedness training is done on a quarterly basis.

Therefore, response to fires, emergencies, disasters and/or other forms of hazards can be very rapid and efficient.

Finally, because the farthest Hillcrest campuses are only 30 minutes away from one another, the three residential treatment centers can provide shelter if necessary. These three campuses each have full sized gymnasiums, fully equipped kitchens, nursing staff, etc. The agency also has a fleet of vans and an assortment of utility vehicles which can be used to transport people, supplies and equipment if and as necessary.

According to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency and the National Weather Service, the following types of emergency/disaster events are statistically the most common for Massachusetts as a whole: flood, hurricane, snow, HAZMAT, tornado. However, based on the actual geographic location of Hillcrest Educational Centers, experience and history indicate that, of these, the “natural disasters” are the ones most likely to occur due to the agency’s location. Of these “natural disasters”, historically and statistically the ones most likely to be problematic to Hillcrest operations are winter ice and snowstorms, which sometime result in loss of electric power for relatively brief periods of time and which Hillcrest is adequately prepared to manage.

Transportation (planes, trucks, automobiles, trains and ships), structural collapse (buildings, dams, bridges, mines, and other structures), explosions, fires, chemical (toxic waste and pollution) biological (sanitation).

Analysis (low risk)
Given the location and nature of the communities and region within which Hillcrest operates, the potential for this type of disaster is seen as extremely low.

Discussion
NA
(Please also refer to the HEC Emergency Preparedness and Management Plan regarding Emergency Evacuation and Lockdown Procedures.
Please also refer to HEC policy on Workplace Violence)

Bomb threat/incident, nuclear, chemical, or biological attack, hostage incident, campus intruder/active shooter.

Analysis (low risk)
Given the location and nature of the communities and region within which Hillcrest operates, the potential for this type of disaster is seen as extremely low. Additionally, Hillcrest’s intensive direct care and supervisor staffing ratios and levels help to ensure student and staff safety and security with regard to these types of potential risks.

Discussion:
Due to the different geographical locations and varying physical plants across HEC, situational specific procedures can be found in the emergency manuals located at all HEC program sites.