Student safety has been the top priority at New Haven since its founding in 1995. The following are just a snippet of the policies and procedures that have been in place for decades to keep our students physically and emotionally safe.
30 Policies We’ve Relied On For Decades
1. Safety policies in line with state licensing and the Joint Commission since 1997.
2. CORE review audits twice a year.
3. Weekly & Monthly administrative reviews of safety.
4. Weekly facility walk through to inspect physical safety.
5. Immediate incident response, reporting and tracking.
6. Client clinical data trended in real time with safety data.
7. Weekly treatment team reviews of individual student trends, as well as community and company trends.
8. Comparative safety data between InnerChange sister programs.
9. Quarterly executive director retreats with sharing of best safety practices.
10. Robust orientations for new hires.
11. Drug testing on all employees before hire and randomly after that.
12. Background & reference checks for all employees before hire; annual background checks after hire.
13. Yearly sexual harassment, boundary, and safety trainings as well as driving and equine safety.
14. Annual staff trainings, including NCI, first aid, and CPR.
15. Minimum of one hour of employee training every week.
16. Intruder policy training and annual drills.
17. Quarterly fire and safety drills on each shift.
18. Medication administration training and safety audits.
19. Nursing staff available 24/7 to answer questions or come to campus.
20. Student vitals taken weekly.
21. Checks on students every 15 minutes.
22. Male staff can’t be alone with any student, and must announce their presence wherever they go.
23. An employee may not hug a student unless another employee is present.
24. Locked storage for sharps, chemicals, other potentially harmful items.
25. Weekly room searches for contraband items.
26. New students and students who are unsafe are within 5 feet of a staff at all times.
27. Students may not be outside after dark unless accompanied by a female employee.
28. Students learn horse safety and sign a safety contract before working with horses outside of group.
29. Grievance form available to all students for their concerns.
30. Student satisfaction surveys provided quarterly.
3 Changes We’ve Made To Improve Student Safety
To continue our commitment to student safety, we would like to introduce three policies that were recently updated to increase safety.
1. We provided additional forums for staff to seek additional training and support when they have questions and concerns. Both students and employees have been educated on a revamped process to bring concerns to the attention of leadership.
2. We implemented firmer policies on when therapists may be alone with students.
3. We improved our student grievance form.
Feedback from both employees and students has helped us provide an environment that feels safer and more open.
2 New Policies We’ve Created To Improve Student Safety
In addition to these updated safety measures, we have also implemented two new changes to improve safety and communication at New Haven.
1. We added windows to every therapy office door.
2. We added groups into our clinical rotation that are dedicated as a space for students to address the safety of each community.
Our dedication to safety is an integral part of New Haven’s program and we are happy to see these refinements made to ensure a safe environment. While we feel that our safety standards are the best in the nation, we are committed to continual improvement and welcome any suggestions you may have. If you have additional ideas about how we can improve, please send us an email at [email protected].