Hi Folks,
I work for the Vermont state government, in the department of health. We regularly have emergency preparedness drills of various types. One of the drills we have is called a "hostile intruder drill" or a "shelter-in-place" drill. These are conducted by a group of security and buildings personnell (all men, to date). They come to a building door and might pound on it to see if someone will let them in. When someone does, they step into the building (if someone doesn't let them in, they'll just use their electronic badges or a key to let themselves in), set off a siren and then say through a bullhorn, "this is a drill."
At that point, all staff is supposed to "Shelter-in-place," from the hostile intruder - supposedly someone with a gun. The crew conducting the drill then walks the halls jiggling door knobs to see if anyone has left a door unlocked....while staff huddles inside the offices, under their desks. Once all doors have been checked, they go on to the next part of the building.
As anyone who works with trauma knows, this is an inherently triggering series of events. Several staff members have remarked afterwards that they have had anxiety attacks, and that the feeling of being under threat has stayed with them for weeks afterwards. Sleep disturbances, irritability, inability to concentrate - all of the hallmarks of PTSD come to the fore for those carrying a history of trauma.
I have protested the use of these drills, suggesting alternative (and I believe far more effective) means of preparing for such an event. Of course I'm getting resistance, but I am hopeful that I have a few key people supporting me and that we might get this changed. Our agency does have a "trauma-informed policy" in place, but of course that is focused on clients of the agency, not on staff. I am also working to change that.
My questions for this forum are:
1) does anyone have any research that addresses the triggering (and therefore harmful) nature of such drills?
2) does anyone have any emergency preparedness templates for conducting drills in a trauma-informed manner?
I am suggesting we work on notification exercises (instead of just running and hiding, how do we insure the rest of the building knows there is an intruder in the building, and who is calling 911?) instead, and have what are called tabletop exercises to work through the pieces of a drill. We could also then walk-through the getting-to-a-safe-place part without the sirens and bullhorn or crew of strange men stalking the halls.
If anyone has any resources, ideas, etc. I would appreciate them!
Kathy Hentcy