Response to an Emergency Training for 211 Staff in Ontario Updated September

Who are these training slides for?  This deck of training slides is for 211 staff so that each person know the procedures to follow if you or your organization is contacted about a community emergency. The call, or text could come to anyone.  Sometimes the scale of an emergency cannot be anticipated when it begins. Being prepared and monitoring closely will best serve people in the community and the staff of 211 organizations. 2

The Role of 211 During Times of Emergency When there is a disaster in a community, people may call 211 looking for information and/or emergency officials may request that 211 answer calls that provide information to the public about the disaster For example, after a damaging tornado in Goderich, the public was able to call 211 to get information such as the location of emergency shelters, laundry facilities and much more In order to ensure all 211 staff understand their roles and responsibilities from the minute we receive notification of an emergency, and to deliver a consistent service across the province, a set of procedures have been developed that will be explained through this presentation 3

Learning Objectives After viewing these slides you should be able to: Know where to find the procedures, forms and related documents Understand the 5 steps found in the “Procedures for Regional Service Providers to Respond to a Community Emergency in Ontario” and various roles & responsibilities Learn how to use the “Required Information” form when initially notified of an emergency Understand how to track calls and take good notes Build awareness of the needs of after-hours and French-language service providers Be aware of what tasks need to be done after the emergency 4

Where to find the Procedures? The entire set of procedures, related documents and forms, and the Contact Information for RSPs re: Disaster Notification, have been stored in a number of places to make it easier to access depending on your role within the 211 system. These places include: A record in iCarol On the Ontario 211 SharePoint site Within your own organization’s procedures and/or emergency plans 5

The Procedures One page - 5 steps …that we will now look at step by step. 6

The Procedures have 5 Steps 7 StepActionWho? 1 Receive notification, collect initial information, alert your Manager, and track calls Any 211 staff member 2 Monitor impact within organization and across 211 system in Ontario Manager or designate 3 Communicate information to those who need to know Manager or designate 4 Organize and expand informationResource Specialist 5 Documentation after the emergencyManager or designate

Step 1: Notification & Information Collection Notification about an emergency may come from an emergency official, a 211 caller, a media report or social media posting and other sources When you receive notification or an alert about an emergency, it is important to gather key points of information quickly and efficiently To assist you in doing this step, the “211 Emergency Activation – Required Information Form” has been created. This allows any 211 staff member to quickly gather the who, what, where, and why of the emergency, as well as the information source. The next 4 slides introduce you to the Required Information Form. 8

Required Information Form for a Community Emergency The form begins with basic information (EIO (Emergency Information Officer) and CEMC (Community Emergency Management Coordinator) are municipal roles. In smaller municipalities these are often shared with other responsibilities e.g. Fire Chief.) 9

Required Information Form for a Community Emergency Then asks for more general information. From experience, we find it is important to collect all this information ASAP. 10

Required Information Form for a Community Emergency The form then has a section to collect additional details. An EOC is an Emergency Operations Centre where officials gather to coordinate the response 11

Required Information Form for a Community Emergency Following the section on additional details, there is space for additional information 12

Step 1: Notification & Information Collection Any 211 staff member can fill in the “Required Information Form” when notified of an emergency For example, if an I&R Specialist receives a call from someone who identifies him or herself as a Fire Chief of a local municipality that wants 211 to know about an emergency incident and requests help in answering calls from the public – the I&R person would fill in as much information as possible and provide the Form to their supervisor or manager as soon as possible The supervisor or manager will then verify the information, confirm 211’s support with the person requesting support and follow the subsequent steps in the Procedures 13

Importance of Tracking Emergency Calls It is very important to track emergency calls consistently and well from the initial notification of an emergency, using iCarol Call Reports The data from these call reports will allow: 211 Managers to understand the capacity to answer calls and decide impact on services (e.g. Should we call in more staff? Get help from another 211 region?) Provide community emergency managers with information about what people need Showcase the capacity of 211 to help residents and municipalities Enable us to understand the impact in preparation for future emergencies 14

How to Track Emergency Calls Whenever possible, track every emergency call by creating a Call Report in iCarol. Be sure to include: As much and/or relevant demographic data (e.g. postal code, gender, age etc) Checking off the “Emergency/Disaster” box on the People tab The referrals made and caller’s needs Additional information to the Content tab. (See next slide for more) Scheduling follow up when required and/or feasible 15

Using the Content Tab in iCarol Information entered in the Content tab allows I&R staff to provide more details about the call that are not noted anywhere else in the call report These details are often very valuable in assessing what callers really need and how best to meet those needs For example, the below notes provide much more information than just knowing that a referral was made to public health 16

Step 2: Monitor Impact Your Manager or a designate will be responsible for monitoring impact within their own organization / region and across the 211 system in Ontario Things that will be monitored and assessed include: Application of the 211 region’s Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and/or Community Emergency Response Plan (CERP) Staff welfare Call volumes and staffing levels The need for assistance from another 211 region 17

Step 3: Share Information The Manager or designate will decide if and when to contact other 211 regions It’s important to keep after-hours and French language service partners informed of any emergency situations If the emergency incident occurs after-hours and the call volume is expected to be high, the after-hours Manager or designate will immediately notify the regions where the disaster is occurring, and possibly other regions If the call volume is low, the after-hours Manager may choose to wait until day time hours to notify other regions For the contact numbers for senior 211 staff in all 211 providers see the “Contact Information for 211 RSPs re: Disaster Notification” 18

The Flow of Information Person who receives information completes the Required Information Form Manager or designate All those who need to know 19

Step 4: Organize and expand information  The Manager may assign a Resource Specialist (or another person) to create a database record about the emergency using information from the “211 Emergency Activation - Required Information Form” This may include:  Gathering details and additional relevant information from other sources e.g. websites, media, social media  Monitoring information and updating the record as required  Sometimes during or following an emergency new information that is not in the database is needed. E.g. grocery stores or banks that are open, laundromats nearby 20

Step 5: Documenting the Emergency Throughout the emergency the Manager or designate should track details of 211’s role in the incident (e.g. date and time of emergency notification, emergency planning meetings, what worked well, what challenges were encountered etc) After the incident an internal debrief should be led by the Manager and a report written using the “Debrief Event Template for Emergencies & Exercises”. This gives 211 staff the opportunity to reflect on what worked well and what areas need improvement. All 211 regions involved in the incident should participate in this debriefing process. 21

The Internal Debrief Report The Debrief document should capture the following: A summary of the sequence of events Who was involved Issues that arose Learning that occurred Proposed actions to improve responses in the future 22

Step 5: Documenting the Emergency It is also important for the Manager to write an After Action Report that can be shared with external partners The focus of this report is to highlight the role of 211 in the community emergency response. It describes what value 211 brought to the emergency response teams and residents, details about why and who called 211 as well as lessons learned and recommendations for improvements There are useful examples of After Action Reports on SharePoint that can be used as a template / guide. 23

24 If you have any questions about emergency procedures or this training, please ask your manager If you have any suggestions about how to improve this training tool, please tell your manager who will pass your recommendations on to the 211 Emergency Response and Recovery working group.