Residential Department Memorandum

[Audio] • This Memo is to clarify Denton County MHMR's procedures for residential fire drills. It is expected that each DCMHMR staff on the residential home at the time of the drill will participate in the drill. It is also the expectation that each staff that participates in the drill will sign the drill form. The following should always be followed: • All staff will follow the drill schedule as posted for their shift. • Drills cannot be conducted on the same day (for example; 2 fire drills/ tornado drills cannot be conducted on the same date). • As part of our in-servicing and orientation to the home all new staff will be required to participate in a fire drill. • All staff must participate in a drill in each residential home where they work, this is particularly important wend the staff move from home to home. • All staff at the home at the time of the drill must participate in the drill. • All staff on the home must record on the drill form that they participated in the drill (all staff signs off on the drill form). • When a fire drill is run staff must pull the fire alarm (the home must inform the fire department prior to pulling the alarm). • It is your responsibility to notify the Residential Home Supervisor, Residential Program Manager, or the OCO if you have any questions regarding the fire drills or safety equipment. • Night drills must be conducted when all individuals are asleep (do not prompt clients about the drill). Lastly, as stated in the New SOP and Guidelines for Residential Home Drills ( Emergency and Safety) memorandum. The residential home drill consists of emergency and safety training that is designed to help the client understand their roles and responsibilities in an emergency or situation that requires personal safety and the home staff's roles and responsibilities in helping accomplish their duty responsibilities. Residential home staff should always be trained; and or training their staff, in a manner that represents real-life scenarios. For example, residential staff should never prompt home clients about drills. Alerting clients about practice drills do not help staff get an accurate assessment of any performance issues that should be addressed. Whether the performance issues are with the client or home staff member. Performing the drills correctly allows staff to realize the areas that need to be improved, focus on the problems witnessed during training that will increase everyone's safety (clients and staff), and take the recognized issues to the organizational management team to discuss ways to improve the overall safety of the clients and staff. After reviewing this video. You are required to review and sign the Memorandum for this video. The Memorandum will ask you to acknowledge receipt of the memorandum. By signing you are stating you have read and understood the contents of the memorandum..