How to develop an emergency plan

ACTION STEPS

Plan for recovery in the preparedness phase.

Determine the roles and responsibilities of staff and

others who will assist in recovery during the planning phase. District-level counselors may want to train school staff to assess the emotional needs of students and colleagues to determine intervention needs. Experience shows that after a crisis many unsolicited offers of assistance from outside the school community are made.During planning, you may want to review the credentials of service providers and certify those that will be used during recovery.

Assemble the Crisis Intervention Team.

A Crisis Intervention Team, or CIT, is composed of individuals at either the district or school level involved in recovery. A review of the literature shows that there are different models for organizing a CIT. In one model, there is a centralized CIT at the district level, which serves all schools in that district. In another model, the district trains school-based CITs. Even when crisis intervention teams exist within individual schools, it may be necessary for the superintendent to allocate additional resources on an as-needed basis.

Service providers in the community may want to assist after a crisis. With prior planning, those with appropriate skills and certifications may be tapped to assist in recovery. This will help district and school personnel coordinate activities of the community service providers and see that district procedures and intervention goals are followed.

Crisis Intervention

One of the major goals of recovery is to provide acaring and supportive school environment.

Return to the “business of learning” as quickly as possible.

Experts agree that the first order of business following a crisis is to return students to learning as quickly as possible. This may involve helping students and families cope with separations from one another with the reopening of school after a crisis.

Schools and districts need to keep students, families, and the media informed. Be clear about what steps have been taken to attend to student safety. Let families and other community members know what support services the school and district are providing or what other community resources are available. Messages to students should be age appropriate. It may be necessary to translate letters and other forms of communication into languages other than English depending on the composition of the communities feeding the affected school(s). Be sure to consider cultural differences when preparing these materials.

Focus on the building, as well as people, during recovery.

Following a crisis, buildings and their grounds may need repairing or repainting/relandscaping. Conduct safety audits and determine the parts of the building that can be used and plan for repairing those that are damaged.

Provide assessment of emotional needs of staff, students, families, and responders.

Assess the emotional needs of all students and staff, and determine those who need intervention by a school counselor, social worker, school psychologist, or other mental health professional. Arrange for appropriate interven- tions by school or community-based service providers. In addition, available services need to be identified for families, who may want to seek treatment for their children or themselves. Appropriate group intervention may be beneficial to students and staff experiencing less severe reactions to the crisis. Group interventions should be age appropriate.

Provide stress management during class time.

Trauma experts emphasize the need to create a caring, warm, and trusting environment for students following a crisis. Allow students to talk about what they felt and experienced during the traumatic event. Younger children who may not be able to fully express their feelings verbally will benefit from participating in creative activities, including drawing, painting, or writing stories. Young adolescents benefit from group discussions in which they are encouraged to talk about their feelings, as well as from writing plays or stories about their experiences. Engage older adolescents in group discussions, and address any issues of guilt (“I could have taken some action to change the outcome of the crisis”).

Conduct daily debriefings for staff, responders,

and others assisting in recovery.

 Mental health workers who have provided services after crises stress the importance of ensuring that those who are providing “psychological first aid” are supported with daily critical incident stress debriefings. Debriefings help staff cope with their own feelings of vulnerability. Allow students to talk about what they felt and experienced during the traumatic event.

Take as much time as needed for recovery.

An individual recovers from a crisis at his or her own pace. Recovery is not linear. After a crisis, healing is a process filled with ups and downs. Depending on the traumatic event and the individual, recovery may take months or even years.

Remember anniversaries of crises.

Many occasions will remind staff, students, and families about crises. The anniversary of crises will stimulate memories and feelings about the incident. In addition, other occasions may remind the school community about the crises, including holidays, returning to school after vacations and other breaks, as well as events or occasions that seemingly do not have a connection with the incident. This underscores the notion that recovery may take a

longer time than anticipated.

Staff members need to be sensitive to their own as well as the students’ reactions in such situations and provide support when necessary. School crisis planning guides suggest holding appropriate memorial services or other activities, such as planting a tree in memory of victims of the crises. Trauma experts discourage memorials for suicide victims to avoid glorification and sensationalization of these deaths.

Evaluate.

 Evaluating recovery efforts will help prepare for the next crisis. Use several methods to evaluate recovery efforts. Conduct brief interviews with emergency responders, families, teachers, students, and staff. Focus groups may also be helpful in obtaining candid information about recovery efforts.

The following are examples of questions to ask:

Which classroom-based interventions proved most successful and why?

Which assessment and referral strategies were the most successful and why?

What were the most positive aspects of staff debriefings and why?

Which recovery strategies would you change and why?

Do other professionals need to be tapped to help with future crises?

What additional training is necessary to enable the school community and the community

at large to prepare for future crises?

What additional equipment is needed to support recovery efforts?

What other planning actions will facilitate future recovery efforts