Transcript Square Pegs in Round Holes

2011 Emergency Management Conference San Antonio, TX
My role as a bridge (too far?)
Who are you?
What? So What? Now What?
What I hope to accomplish
this morning:
Describe differences
Suggest solutions
Give permission!
Mission: “To protect children, the elderly,
and people with disabilities from abuse,
neglect, and exploitation by involving
clients, families and communities”
State-wide responsibility, 350 offices, 12
Regions, 10,000 employees
Special Needs Clientele
28,000 children in State Conservatorship
The world changed on 1/1/2000
Y2K
The world really changed on 9/11/2001
The world changed AGAIN on 8/29/2005
The DFPS world was rocked in April, 2008
When and where
will the next
change
occur?
?
Authorities:
The President
DHS
FEMA
TXDEM
Governor’s
Office
Texas
Legislature
Standards:
Presidential Decision Directive 5
(PDD5)
HS Presidential Directive 8 (HSPD8)
National Response Framework (NRF)
National Incident Management System
(NIMS)
HS Exercise and Evaluation Program
(HSEEP)
National Preparedness Guidelines
(NPG)
Target Capabilities List (TCL)
National Continuity Guidance Circulars
1 & 2 (NCG)
6
• Governor’s Executive Order RP40
First responders have made the “rules” to fit
their own reality and needs;
Mission differences
cultural
differences
structural differences;
The “type” of people drawn to SS vs. ES: FR’s
are not Social workers, and vice versa;
Bifurcated mission of SS;
Centralized vs. decentralized authority;
Different kinds of “Life and/or Death” scenarios;
Limitations on additional resource procurement.
Dependent Clientele;
Urgent timelines for action;
High profile activities;
Potential to polarize people (make them mad);
Media magnets
Turf issues and “skin in the game”
“Bully pulpit” potential
Affirmative Command and Control;
Manage by operational period objectives;
Management structure and division of
responsibilities that make sense;
Reliance on multiple strategic partnerships;
Need for traditional ICS principles (e.g., span of
control, unity of command, modular
organization, common terminology, etc.);
Common point of insertion and attachment.
Social Workers not first responders
First Responder Mission: Response/Rescue
SS Mission: Parallel Paths--Disaster
Recovery & Business Continuity
FR’s mission focused, short-term;
SS’s mission short-term intervention with
long-term after-care;
Bifurcated mission produces the need to
have an operations section dedicated to
program continuity.
Doesn’t contemplate variety of audiences;
Exercises/Examples are all from emergency
response world;
Much of the information extraneous to SS;
Definition of “torture:” Interminable length,
inapplicable material, forced attendance;
Instructors unfamiliar with SS environment.
Social workers remembered little of what they
had learned;
Lack of identification with the subject matter
made class boring;
Difficult to get subsequent supervisor sign up;
Depth of system understanding very shallow;
ICS reduced to maintaining names in boxes on
an org chart.
Command organizational structure IS based on:
Size, type, and complexity of the incident
Organizational Mission
Specifics of the hazard environment created
by the incident
Incident planning process and incident
objectives
Resources available
Intangibles
It is NOT based on a chart in a book!
Working definition: “Matching the IMS’s
response structure to the organization’s mission”
Evaluating desired outcomes & available
resources, & design a structure to match.
Incident Commander clarifying/focusing
questions:
What are my major problems?
How should I divide this incident
functionally/geographically?
What is happening right now?
What is likely to be happening in __ ?
DFPS Major Incident Organization
Area
Command
Area Command Staff:
PIO, Liaison
(Dept. Ops Center)
(DOC)
AAC
Continuity
Operations
AAC
Logistics
AAC
Plans
AAC
Recovery
Operations
Manager/Office
Recovery
Operations
Manager/Office
Plans
Manager/Office
Client Safety
Contact
Staff Safety
Contact
Finance/
Admin
Logistics
Branch Tactical
Planning Level
OR
Office
Manager/Office
Branch
Level
Office
Office
Office
Office
Functional
Branch Level
Geographic
Facilities
Information
Technology
Records
Recovery
Functional
Security
Devolution
= "If Needed"
REGIONAL OFFICE
Unified
Continuity
Operations
Unified
Regional
Command
Unified
Regional
Command
AAC General
Staff
Critical Resource
Unit Leader
Sit/Stat Unit
Leader
Unified Regional
Command
AAC
Finance
Level
STATE OFFICE
Multi-Agency
Coordination
Center (MACC)
DFPS Area
Command
DFPS
Liaison
Teams
State
Operations
Center
20
DFPS INITIAL INCIDENT OBJECTIVES
ICS Form 202, Modified
FIRST POST-INCIDENT OPERATIONAL
PERIOD
OPERATIONAL PERIOD (DATE/TIME)
INCIDENT NAME
CHECK ONE:
SINGLE COMMAND
DFPS REGION/OFFICE
INCIDENT TYPE (e.g., hurricane,
tornado, etc.)
UNIFIED COMMAND
GENERAL CONTROL OBJECTIVES FOR THE INCIDENT (INCLUDE ALTERNATIVES)
• Provide for worker safety;
• Establish an appropriate incident management organization and Command Post, and brief personnel;
• Ensure a communications link with State Office personnel, and the Area Command, if activated;
• Ensure the safety of special needs clients and/or persons in State Conservatorship;
• Communicate with all affected DFPS offices in your region;
• Conduct a comprehensive damage assessment and report to the AAC Plans;
• Secure State-owned property;
• Remove debris for access as needed;
• Assess Mission Essential Functions and provide for the re-establishment of Tier
• Assess the need for technical specialists or special operations
• Other: ___________________________________________________________________________
• Other: ___________________________________________________________________________
Table 1
A strong thunderstorm front produces an F4 tornado in northeast Austin at
8:35 p.m. on a Thursday night. The tornado traveled on the ground for more
than a mile, destroying 2401 and 2323 Ridgepoint Dr., and severely damaging
2525.
Table 2
Envelopes with white powder were simultaneously opened at the Winters
Building, Brown-Heatly, Sam Houston State Office Building, and the William P.
Clements State office Building. The powder was tested and found to be
weapons-grade anthrax.
Table 3
An H5N1 outbreak of flu has been confirmed in six patients at Dallas Parkland
Hospital. Doctor’s offices are reporting a strong upsurge of patients with “flulike” symptoms. The Governor is rumored to be considering a quarantine of
the metroplex.
Table 4
A strong category 4 hurricane is 36 hours off of the coast of Texas and
headed ashore south and west of Houston. The County Judges from the
Louisiana border to Nueces County have ordered mandatory evacuations.
Table 5
A disgruntled employee charged with sexual misconduct with a child leaves
and returns with a gun, shooting his way through the crowded cafeteria of
the Round Rock Children’s Home. Sixteen are dead (including the
gunman), 36 are wounded and taken to area hospitals.
Table 6
An anonymous tip to Statewide Intake claims that on a secluded property in
deep East Texas (Angelina Forest) a radical fundamentalist Christian sect is
“brainwashing” children and growing marijuana to finance their activities.
Initial investigation reveals as many 78 children and many elderly living on
the site. A local judge has issued a search warrant based on credible
reports of “tons” of marijuana.
Earthquake occurred 56 miles offshore on the
north coast of Cuba at 0837 hours CDT
Strength=7.9 on the Richter Scale
Displace sea floor generated a Tsunami 37 feet
high
Tsunami traveling at 132 MPH in all directions
from epicenter
Tsunami will arrive at Galveston in 6 hours, 40
minutes; Corpus, 7 hours 30 minutes;
Brownsville, 7 hours 30 minutes.
Elevation charts show that the wave will reach
approximately 12 miles inland before retreating.
One size template does not fit the multiplicity
of potential users;
Just as schools, public works, hospitals and
public health have their own version(s) of
tweaked ICS, Social Services should as well;
Emergency services originated the ICS, but it
does not “own” the basic management
principles on which it is based;
Emergencies are not proprietary; neither
should the response system be.