LOVE

Stories from the Staff

IV

We had a door at the end of the hallway on the second floor that was a fire escape. As such, there was a fire alarm with a clear plastic cover, requiring someone to first pull the clear cover away before being able to activate the fire alarm. Just removing the plastic cover resulted in an ear-piercing shrieking alarm to sound. The purpose was to prevent the resident from activating the regular alarm, which would call the fire dept to the facility.

One resident figured the clear cover out, and would repeatedly pull it away from the wall. This required staff to find the key, go to the end of the hall, and silence the alarm, obviously very disruptive to staff and residents.

One intervention to detract resident attention from something you don't want them to do, is to provide distraction.

We first tried to set a table in front of the alarm with all kinds of items, puzzles, books, pictures, PVC pipe, etc. in hopes the resident would become distracted and not activate the alarm. Didn't work. Then placed bright yellow tape across the door and the alarm box with "DANGER- Construction area" printed on it. Didn't work - he just pulled the tape down and pulled the plastic cover off.

The door had a small vertical window, which (according to fire marshal) couldn't be covered. So we made a large, almost-door-size sign with a stick figure of a woman, (like might be seen on restaurant bathroom door), and in large letters printed "LADIES".

(One very effective way to prevent residents from going somewhere with us, for example off the unit, is to tell them in a low voice, "I'm going to the ladies room, I'll be right back". The residents almost always will immediately stop and say "Oh, OK").

However, when making the fire door appear to be a women's bathroom door, we found three residents lined up at the door, standing side-by-side, and leaning to the side to "sneak a peak" through the small window.

We never did come up with a consistent and effective way to dissuade residents from activating the fire alarm. The one resident noted above did pull the alarm once, and when he noted a staff member standing beside him just after he pulled the alarm, he stated in a stage whisper, "Watch now, the girls will come running!"