Promoting a Healthy Campus Initiative: Incident Response Teams

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Promoting a Healthy Campus Initiative Incident
Response Teams

• Jackie Balzer
• Portland State University
• Laura Blake Jones
• University of Oregon

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Governors Task Force on Campus Safety
Recommendations and Summary

• Campuses should establish multi-disciplinary
  assessment and intervention teams to identify
  students or staff who appear to pose a risk of
  harm to themselves or others.
• The entire campus community should receive
  training on how to identify persons who may need
  help and how to make appropriate referrals.
• Regardless of size, campus student services staff
  should communicate with their constituencies
  clearly, consistently and regularly on risk
  assessment policies and practices.

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Governors Task Force on Campus Safety Call to
action

• A national study of campuses in 2002 summarized
  student safety risks as follows
• 36,000 to 48,000 sexual assaults against women
• 2,953 aggravated assaults on campus
• 1,400 alcohol-related deaths
• 1,098 cases of campus arson
• 1,088 suicides on campus
• 23 campus homicides

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Governors Task Force on Campus SafetyCall to
action

• Suicide is the second leading cause of death
  among college youth.
• Students age 25 and over and males have higher
  suicide rates.
• A study in 2004 found that 11 percent of college
  women and 9 percent of college men had seriously
  considered suicide and that 1.3 percent had made
  at least one attempt.
• This study found that only one in five of the
  students who attempted suicide was on medication
  or in therapy.

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PSU Model
SIT Coordinating Leadership Team for Student
Issues and Response Teams (Pres, SHAC, AA, GC,
DRC, Ombuds, RL, CPSO, DOS, WRC, OIA, SALP,
UCOMM, SHAC, UASC, DAC)
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UO Model
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Lessons Learned along the way.

• As a campus we will be judged on three things
• What we did before the incident. Our job is to
  think about the unthinkable. Incidents are
  complex and require trained and empowered work
  teams to guide a response.
• What we did during the incident. Our job is to
  prepare accordingly so that our multidisciplinary
  work teams coordinate the best response.
• What we did after the incident. Our job is to
  restore a positive learning environment and
  uphold our educational mission.

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Coordinated Response Teams Essential Components

• Coordinated Leadership Development
• -Facilitator training and support
• -Accountability for leadership of teams
• Coordinated Team Development
• -Professional development
• -Membership and team building
• -Orientation, mentoring and assessment
• Effective Operational Procedures
• Accessibility and use of technology
• Coordinated Admin. Support and Outreach
• Scheduling, minutes, web, outreach

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Coordinated Response Teams Essential Components

• Determine Team needs
• Who needs to be on the team?
• What does the group require as a whole to do the
  work well?
• Individual needs
• What are the roles and expectations of team
  members?
• What does each individual require to give his or
  her best performance to the team?
• Determine Task needs
• What exactly is the job to be done?

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Coordinated Response Teams Essential Components
Individual Competencies

• Empowered campus/unit representation
• Knowledge of university policies, student issues,
  resources
• Commitment to health, safety and student success
• Strong communication skills and open to dialogue
• Media experience
• Calm presence
• Understanding of expert and consultation roles
• Availability and responsibility mindset
• Team player mindset

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Coordinated Response Teams Essential Components
Team Competencies

• Empowered and responsible leadership skills
• Willingness to be accountable and action oriented
• Collective wisdom mentality
• Problem solving ability
• Commitment to safety and student success
• Forward thinking and scanning
• Big picture thinking
• Trustworthy and open communication
• Culturally competent
• Availability and accessibility

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Coordinated Response Teams Essential
Components-Training

• University/School policies and team protocols
• University/School offices and services
• Shared decision making skills and philosophy
• Speaking to the Media
• General campus facts and figures
• International facts and figures
• Trauma, grief and loss theory
• Incident simulations
• Legal issues
• Social networking and web
• Cultural competency
• Self care

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Coordinated Response Teams Common Challenges

• Three main reasons why Teams stumble
• Team roles are not clearly defined. Tasks fall
  through the cracks or are haphazard
• There is a lack of coordination. The goals are
  poorly defined (control situation vs PR)
• There are communication problems. Internal and
  external communications are not planned,
  organized and complete.

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Coordinated Response Teams Common Challenges

• Intense media attention
• Amount of contact with family and relatives
• Higher than normal expectations
• Physical and time pressures created by nature of
  the incident
• Uncertain or prolonged duration of the situation
• Conflict or disagreement on the TEAM
• Access to Team members

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Additional Materials
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Coordinated Response Teams Guiding Management
Process
Adapted FEMA, 2004
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Planning

• Formation of Teams
• Team leadership and membership
• Team development and learning
• Campus scan/possible incident audit
• Team stakeholder and policy analysis
• Team protocol development and planning
• Practice

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Prevention

• Identification of possible incidents
• Environmental
• Facility
• Human
• Warning systems/Mitigation of incident
• Training for faculty and staff
• Campus resource development
• Policy development

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Prevention

• Identification of possible incidents Facility
• Fire
• Explosion
• Chemical
• Evacuation
• Loss of utilities
• Major computing/IT loss
• Offensive graffiti
• Facility take over

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Prevention

• Identification of possible incidents Human
• Death (student/faculty)
• Student injury
• Suicide
• Emotional/psychological crisis
• Missing person
• Alcohol overdose
• Infectious disease
• Demonstration/riot
• IT/social networking
• Incident aboard

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Prevention

• Identification of possible incidents Human
• Physical Assault/Hostage
• Sexual Assault/Violence
• Stalking
• Kidnapping
• Terrorist threat
• Vandalism
• Hate crime/Bias

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Threat Assessment - US FBI

• Low no detail to threat, realism low, general
  comments only
• Medium some concrete details to plan, general
  time and place, threat could be carried out
• High imminent threats, direct and specific,
  means to carry out are gathered, victim under
  observation

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Protective Factors - US FBI

• Demonstrated resiliency
• Social competency
• Peer relationships and support
• Family involvement and support
• Mentor relationships

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Response

• Operations
• Convening Team
• Meeting procedures
• Decision making process
• Expectations
• Action steps
• Incident Communications
• Internal
• External

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Response

• Meetings
• Gather critical information
• Convene the Team
• Analyzing information
• Developing management plan
• Making decisions
• Communication plan
• Monitoring outcomes plan
• Follow up plan

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Response

• Protocols/Incident Communications
• Students (current, prospective and former), (on
  and off campus)
• Parents/family
• Staff/Faculty
• Visitors
• Community stakeholders
• Government stakeholders
• Media (TV, Radio, Web)
• General Public

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Response

• One of the best ways to respond is to provide
  psychological first aid. This includes the
  provision of
• Comfort
• Information
• Support
• Resources (can include safety, shelter, medical
  and financial assistance)

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Response

• People should be encouraged to use natural
  supports and to talk with those they are
  comfortable withat their own pace. They should
  follow their natural inclination with regard to
  how much and to whom they talk.
• A helpful response will be to listen actively
  and supportively but not probe for
  details/emotional responses, and validate and
  normalize natural recovery.

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Response

• Traumatic experiences may stir up memories or
  exacerbate symptoms related to previous traumatic
  events, as in opening old wounds. These
  symptoms should be normalized and are likely to
  abate with time. It may be helpful to ask people
  what strategies they have used in the past and
  encourage this.

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Recovery

• Balancing stressors and resources
• Restoring full operations
• Educational activities/materials
• Communicating to community
• Healing/Honoring activities

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Learning

• Debrief
• Incident review
• Protocol review
• Documentation
• Maintaining statistics
• Stakeholder follow-up
• Assessment of Team functioning
• -Individual
• Collective

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Resources (need to add text)

• Books
• Websites
• Reports
• Organizations

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Current References

• Benton, S.A. and Benton S.L. Eds., College
  Student Mental Health Effective Services and
  Strategies Across Campus. National Association of
  Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA), 2006.
• Cintron, R, Weathers, E. and Garlough, K. Eds.,
  College Student Death Guidance for a Caring
  Campus. ACPA. University Press of America, Inc.
  Lanham, MD., 2007
• Junco, R. and Mastrodicasa, J. Connecting to the
  Net.Generation, National Association of Student
  Personnel Administrators (NASPA), 2007.
• Kadison, R., M.D., Digeronimo, T.F. College of
  the Overwhelmed The Campus Mental Health Crisis
  and What to do About It. Jossey-Bass, San
  Francisco. 2004.
• Pavela, G., Questions and Answers on College
  Student Suicide A Law and Policy Perspective.
  College Administration Publications, Inc.,
  Asheville, NC. 2006
• Zdziarski, E., Dunkel, N.W., Rollo, J.M., Campus
  Crisis Management A Comprehensive Guide to
  Planning, Prevention, Response, and Recovery.
  John Wiley Sons, Inc. San Francisco.
  Jossey-Bass. 2007.

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Older References

• Amada, G., Coping with the Disruptive College
  Student A Practical Model. College
  Administration Publications, Inc., Asheville, NC.
  1994.
• Gilliland, B.E. and James, R.K., Crisis
  Intervention Strategies. Wadsworth, Inc.,
  Belmont, CA. 1988.
• Siegel, D., Campuses Respond to Violent Tragedy.
  American Council on Education and The Oryx Press,
  Phoenix, AZ. 1994
• Smith, M.C. and Fossey, R., Crime on Campus
  Legal Issues and Campus Administration. American
  Council on Higher Education and The Oryx Press,
  Phoenix, AZ. 1995
• Whitaker, L.C., Pollard, J.W., Eds., Campus
  Violence Kinds, Causes, and Cures. The Haworth
  Press, Inc., Binghamton, NY. 1993.