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 of urgent and/or life threatening circumstances (as defined herein):
1) If staff can access an outside telephone line, staff are authorized to call 911 for emergency assistance from fire and rescue or emergency medical services.
2) If staff cannot access an outside telephone line, staff will notify the supervisor or available administrator of the need for community emergency assistance.

If the circumstances or conditions are potentially dangerous, but are not urgent and/or immediately life threatening, staff will notify the supervisor.

If the situation might require police intervention rather than fire and rescue or medical services, staff will notify the supervisor.

The supervisor is authorized to determine further action, such as immediately notifying external authorities (e.g., calling 911, fire or police) or notifying a program manager.”

“Urgent and/or life threatening circumstances” – Definition:
• A situation that poses an immediate and unexpected risk to health, life or property, and that requires urgent intervention from community services (e.g., fire and rescue) to prevent further injury, death or serious damage.
• A condition of urgent and immediate need for action and/or assistance by community services.
• An apparent and presenting (not potential) condition that presents a very serious, clear, present injury, damage or danger to persons or property, and that cannot be managed by HEC personnel, Supervisors or Managers..
• A state of crisis that is present and unfolding in the present (rather than potentially or possible), and that presents an unmanageable threat to lives or serious and major damage to property.

Examples of Urgent and /or Life Threatening Circumstances:
• A person has lost consciousness, or cannot breathe, or is losing copious amounts of blood.
• A fire in a building.
• Serious, major storm damage to a building to the extent that lives or well-being are threatened.

Examples of what does NOT constitute Urgent and /or Life Threatening Circumstances:
In these types of situations, the Supervisor should be notified, not community intervention services.
• A student is verbally or even physically threatening, destroying property or is running away.
• A student or staff has physical symptoms that should be checked by a nurse but are not serious or life threatening.
• A situation that might eventually require police intervention.

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.