[CM] [JHA] [E1] [C7] Composing the Crisis Management Team for Jamiyah Home for the Aged

When a crisis breaks, the first question is not "what does the plan say?" but "who is in charge, and who is with them?" A crisis management team is the group of people who have been chosen, trained and authorised in advance to lead the organisation's response. This chapter proposes a structure for Jamiyah Home for the Aged (JHA): who should be on the team, what each person does, how the team connects to the Board, the managing agent and the staff on the floor, and how to keep it working at any hour of the day or night.

ISO 22361 places strong emphasis on crisis leadership and on the people who carry it out. A well-designed team is one of the most valuable assets a home can have, and one of the cheapest to build.

Principles for designing the team

Several principles guide the design.

Small enough to decide, broad enough to see. An effective core team usually has between six and nine members. Fewer than six leaves knowledge gaps. More than nine slows decisions and creates arguments about who should speak.

Roles, not just names. Teams are built around roles with clear responsibilities, then people are assigned to those roles. When a person leaves or is absent, the role continues.

Every role has an alternate. A home that runs around the clock cannot depend on a person who is on leave, on night duty or unreachable. Each role needs at least one trained alternate, and the alternates need to be as familiar with the plan as the primary members.

Authority matches responsibility. Members must be able to make decisions and commit resources within agreed limits. A team that must call someone else for approval at every step is not a crisis team.

The team is a standing arrangement. It is not assembled from scratch in the middle of a crisis. Its members, contact details and meeting places are known and kept current.

The residents' interests come first. The team's composition should reflect that residents' care is the primary concern, so people with clinical and care knowledge must be at the table.

A three-tier structure

A home like JHA benefits from thinking of crisis structure in three tiers, each with a different job.

Tier 1: Strategic oversight (the Board and Jamiyah Singapore leadership). This tier sets policy, approves goals, provides resources, and makes decisions only the governing body can make, such as large expenditures, major public statements about the organisation's future, and dealings with senior government officials. It is not involved in operational detail. It must, however, be told early and know who to speak to. A named Board liaison, often the chair of the committee overseeing the homes, is the link.

Tier 2: The crisis management team (JHA's tactical leadership). This is the group described in the rest of this chapter. It assesses the situation, decides what to do, directs resources, communicates, and reports upwards. It is based at the home, supported by managing agent services.

Tier 3: Operational response (the people on the floor and in the building). These are the care teams, nurses, kitchen staff, security officers, and others who carry out the response: moving residents, providing care, fighting a small fire, and calling for help. They are led by designated persons-in-charge on each shift, who are the first responders in any event and who escalate to Tier 2.

The tiers connect through clear escalation rules. The shift lead handles what can be handled, escalates what cannot, and the crisis management team, through its leader, escalates to the Board liaison where the situation meets set criteria. Chapter 10 returns to these rules.

Proposed membership of the JHA crisis management team

The table below proposes a set of roles. JHA should adapt titles to its own organisation chart, because some roles may be combined in a smaller home or may sit with the managing agent.

Two further roles are worth considering.

Pastoral and spiritual care lead. For residents, families and staff, a crisis is often emotionally and spiritually demanding. Given the home's character and the religious and cultural practices of those it serves, someone who can offer pastoral support and advise on cultural and religious considerations can be an important member, whether on the core team or as a named adviser.

Board liaison. Not a member of the tactical team but its direct link to the Board. This person receives briefings, represents the Board's views and escalates decisions that need Board attention.

Alternates and cover

Each role should have a first and a second alternate. A simple cover table, kept alongside the contact list, helps. It should show, for every role, the primary, the first alternate, the second alternate, and who is on call outside working hours.

To cover nights, weekends and public holidays, JHA could use an on-call roster for the crisis leader and deputy, so there is always one person with authority who can be reached and who can reach the rest of the team. On-call arrangements should respect rest requirements, so that the same person is not on duty week after week.

A quorum rule is also useful. For example, the team might be considered activated when the leader or deputy and at least three other members are available, with the remaining members joining as soon as they can.

Qualities to look for

Titles matter less than temperament and skills. People who work well in crisis teams tend to share a few qualities:

• calm under pressure and able to make decisions with incomplete information;
• honest about what they do and do not know;
• willing to listen to those with more specific knowledge;
• clear communicators, both in speaking and in writing;
• good at working with others, including across departments and with outside bodies; and
• resilient, with the ability to ask for relief when tired.

The leader needs the above and a clear understanding of when to delegate. The most common failure of a crisis leader is trying to do everything personally. A crisis leader's job is to think, decide and direct, not to personally move the furniture.

Authority and decision rights

The plan should say, in plain terms, what the team can decide and what it must refer upwards. A simple framework for JHA is shown below.

Because these decision rights involve money and law, the Board or its committee should approve them in advance. The approval itself is valuable evidence of governance.

Where the team works

A crisis team needs a place to meet and the tools to work. JHA should identify:

• a primary command point within the home, such as the Superintendent's office or a meeting room with phone lines, power sockets and a wall for notes;
• an alternate command point, perhaps at Jamiyah Singapore's head office or another Jamiyah home, in case the building cannot be used;
• a virtual option, such as a standing group call or secure messaging group, for members who cannot attend in person; and
• a crisis kit containing printed copies of the plan and contact lists, resident lists, building plans, keys, torches, power banks, stationery, log sheets and identification for the team.

Paper copies matter. A plan that exists only in a system that has gone down is of little use.

Working with the managing agent and external parties

JHA does not respond alone. The team's design should make clear how it connects to others.

• Jamiyah Singapore. Shared services such as finance, legal, human resources, communications and IT may be provided from the head office. The plan should name the contact for each service and say how quickly each can respond. Where the managing agent has its own crisis structure, JHA's team should fit within it and not compete with it.
• MSF. The team should know the notification requirements, who at MSF to contact and how.
• Emergency services and healthcare providers. Contact details, agreed procedures, and ideally a prior conversation with nearby hospitals and polyclinics, so resident handovers are smooth.
• Other Jamiyah homes. Darul Syifaa' and Darul Islah may be able to help with space, staff or equipment, and JHA may be able to help them. Mutual support arrangements should be written down, not assumed.
• Professional advisers. Legal counsel, communications advisers and insurers should be identified in advance, with after-hours contact details.

Keeping the team ready

A team is not ready simply because it has been named. Four habits keep it prepared.

Train. Every member and alternate should understand their role, the plan and the principles of crisis leadership. Many homes find that a half-day induction and an annual refresher is enough to start.

Exercise. At least once a year, the team should rehearse a realistic scenario, with a facilitator and a structured debrief. Chapter 8 places exercising within the methodology.

Check the contact list. Every quarter, someone should phone or message every member, alternating to verify contact details and availability. A list that is six months old is likely to contain errors.

Look after the people. A long crisis is exhausting. The plan should include rotation of duties, rest breaks, food and welfare support for the team, and a rule that no one makes major decisions after being awake for more than a set number of hours without a rested colleague to review them.

Common mistakes

• Naming a team that consists only of the most senior people, leaving out those with clinical or frontline knowledge.
• Naming roles without alternates.
• Giving the team responsibility without authority.
• Forgetting the log keeper, so that nobody can later explain what was decided and why.
• Neglecting to include the communications function until the first journalist calls.
• Treating the team as a name on a chart and never meeting.

Summary

JHA's crisis management team should be small, role-based, and supported by alternates, with a clear leader, a deputy with clinical or care knowledge, and members covering residents and families, facilities, communications, people, finance, compliance, and information. It should operate within a three-tier structure linking the Board, the tactical team and the operational responders, with decision rights approved in advance and working arrangements that survive a loss of the building.

The structure proposed here is a starting point. JHA should tailor it, name real people and alternates, and test it. With the team in view, the next chapter describes the methodology JHA will use to build its crisis management programme step by step.