[Note: Program specific Evacuation and Intruder Protocol procedures are also covered in the Hillcrest Emergency Manuals.]

If, as a result of an emergency/disaster, the threat of such, or for any other reason, campus facilities cannot support adequate safety for students and staff, and/or care and treatment of students, evacuation procedures will be implemented. Evacuation procedures will only be initiated by the Executive Director, Senior Vice President, the Program Director and/or his/her designee, or by an authorized member of the agency Senior Management Team.

After being notified and confirming, and/or determining that an emergency evacuation is necessary, the Executive Director, Senior Vice President, and/or the Program Director or the administrator in charge will contact Central Administration and apprise them of the situation. The administrator in charge will make arrangements to evacuate the campus, including all students and staff, to the nearest suitable relocation site, preferably another Hillcrest site. The day program will relocate students to their residences, if that can be safely done. The Executive Director, Senior Vice President, and/or the Program Director will determine what supplies, medication and records can safely be prepared for evacuation, and when. However, the safety, well-being, and protection of the students and staff are always the first and foremost priority of all decision makers during the evacuation process.

If conditions are such that supplies, water and food, medication and records can be prepared for transport without compromising the safety of students and staff, the Executive Director, Senior Vice President, and/or the Program Director or his/her designee will notify all available department heads and supervisors of the need to evacuate the campus. He/she will provide direction to department heads as to how they and their staff will be deployed during the evacuation and relocation with regard to preparing supplies, food and water, medication and records; securing and preparing vehicles; communications; or assisting direct care staff with students.

If conditions are such that supplies, water and food, medication and records cannot safely be prepared for transport, department heads and their available staff, and supervisors will be deployed in preparing the students and staff for transport as soon as possible, initiating security procedures for the campus, and gathering telephones, cell phones and walkie talkies for emergency communication during the evacuation.

If conditions allow, the nursing staff at residential programs will prepare at least one day’s medication for all students. They will also secure for travel all lists and information related to the daily meds and medical needs of the students being evacuated.

Provided it is safe to do so, the residential supervisor on duty will bring the students’ Emergency Medical Files and, additionally, necessary supplies from the campus to the relocation site. Supplies will be selected based on current, emerging and projected conditions, and the selected relocation site. Supplies may include such things as bed linens, articles of clothing, ADL supplies.

Once the students and staff have reached the relocation site, the supervisor on duty will notify the Program Director or the manager in charge if he/she is not at the relocation site. The supervisor and/or available administrators will survey the site and make a list of supplies that are needed. Once the list of supplies has been compiled, the supervisor will call the other campuses and/or emergency management agencies to procure the needed supplies.

If there is not enough bed space at a single campus, the students will then be placed in the other campuses or relocation sites on a space available basis. The Program Director or the manager in charge will then notify the nursing department that the students are being evacuated and the nursing department shall insure that the students’ medications and medication charts, if available, are delivered to the campus(s), provided it is safe to do so. The supervisor will also bring student case records and medication files, and deliver them to the campus nurse.
If evacuated residential students cannot be housed at either a Hillcrest campus or the administrative offices, the students shall be housed at a motel or emergency shelter until suitable on campus quarters are available. If this contingency becomes necessary, the Program Director or the manager in charge and Central Administration will arrange for necessary staffing and support.

If this contingency becomes necessary, the Program Director or the manager in charge will contact motels and/or emergency shelters in the area and reserve space for the students and staff.

The Program Director or the manager in charge will keep the nursing department and Central Administration appraised of the students’ relocation sites. The nursing department will insure that the students’ medications and any necessary medical supplies, if available, are in place at the relocation site, provided it is safe to do so.

Finally, in the event that a student at any program refuses to leave a building during an actual disaster evacuation, as opposed to an evacuation drill, the student will be physically removed by staff in a manner consistent with Hillcrest’s physical intervention policy, if possible. However, since an evacuation would only be conducted if remaining inside a building or on a campus would present imminent danger of serious injury to students and staff, any student refusing to cooperate with evacuation procedures will be physically removed by staff as quickly and safely as possible.

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. At least 50% of all fire drills are unscheduled. All fire drills are documented on the appropriate agency forms and are reviewed by campus administrators as they are conducted and by the EOC Committee every other month.

Each Hillcrest campus conducts two evacuation drills each year separated by no less than four months and no more than eight months. All evacuation drills are documented on the appropriate agency forms and are reviewed by the Senior Vice President, Director of Quality Assurance, and the Program Director or his/her designee. All evacuation drills are critiqued through a multidisciplinary process to identify deficiencies and opportunities for improvement based upon all monitoring activities and observations during the exercises. The effectiveness of corrected deficiencies and/or of improvements made in response to critiques are evaluated during the next drill.

The overall objective for evacuation drills is to keep students and staff safe under emergency/disaster conditions. Hillcrest must balance:
• the ability to evacuate our facilities in an efficient and timely manner, with
• either having, or being able to acquire, necessary supplies, materials and equipment related to the safety and well-being of our students and staff while in a relocation site.

Hillcrest will also achieve this balance in a manner consistent with Massachusetts DEEC requirements and Joint Commission standards.

Hillcrest has no formal role or responsibility in community wide emergency response activities. However, depending on specific events and/or conditions, Hillcrest Central Administration may determine ways in which Hillcrest resources (e.g., space, vehicles, staff) may be put at the disposal of community emergency response agencies, on a completely voluntary basis.

Both on a campus specific and agency wide basis, Hillcrest strives to maintain positive, open and mutually supportive relationships with all local community emergency response agencies.

The management of space, supplies and security will be conducted by on site administrators and/or supervisors, who will make decisions based on current and emerging conditions, with the safety, well-being and protection of students and staff being the highest priority.

Arrangements have been made with vendors and suppliers to ensure that Hillcrest, as a high priority client, will be able to obtain medication and related supplies, and essential non-medical supplies during emergencies of varying severity and geographic scope.

If an event is localized, sites may be able to share or pool necessary supplies and deploy staff among sites.

Under emergency/disaster conditions program managers and/or supervisors are authorized to deploy any and all available staff as necessary. Staff on shift may be held over, as needed, and staff from other campuses and/or from Central Administration may be deployed at one or more campuses, as necessary.

Staff deployment decisions (e.g., the assistant supervisor to “sweep” evacuated buildings) will be made by supervisor and administrators at the program site based on the variety of conditions existing at the time. Program managers and/or supervisors make the safety, well-being and protection of students and staff their highest priority when making staff deployment decisions.

1) Notifying On Campus Staff
On campus, as soon as it has been determined that Emergency Response Measures will be initiated, the program manager, supervisor and/or designees will notify all staff via telephone, walkie-talkie, computer email, and/or in-person contact.

Regardless of the conditions, these communications will be conducted in a professional and calm manner so that students will not be unduly frightened or agitated.

If conditions require that Emergency Response Measures must be initiated or directed from Central Administration, a member of the Senior Management Team will telephone or have in-person contact with a campus/program manager or supervisor. Campus/program procedures will then be implemented.

2) Notifying Hillcrest Central Office Administration
Consistent with Hillcrest Policies and Procedures, the Senior Manager on call will be contacted when any of the following situations occur, among others:
a. A student or staff requiring hospitalization.
b. Serious physical plant or vehicle damage.
c. Fire and/or need to evacuate a building or the campus.

In the event that advanced warning of potential emergency conditions are available (e.g., predictions of severe inclement weather), all Hillcrest sites will make advanced preparations to ensure safe and relatively comfortable operations. Advanced preparations will differ depending on the nature and severity of the predicted conditions, cautions and warnings. Safety measures and precautions will have the highest priority

Advanced preparations at all sites (as appropriate) may include but not be limited to:
• Monitor weather communications.
• Securing the campus grounds, property and buildings in anticipation of severe weather (e.g., high winds, ice).
• Testing generators and generator gas supply (when applicable).
• Checking emergency food and water supplies.
• Filling vans and snow removal vehicles with gas.
• Recharging communications devices (e.g., walkie-talkies, cell phones).
• Check battery supplies for flashlights.
• Prepare students and staff.

Advanced preparations at non-residential may also include canceling appointments and/or suspending services.

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.