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| BRINGING COMFORT-The Traumatic Intervention Program of Southern Nevada needs volunteers quickly who can help people work through the emotions of difficult times. |
| By Glenn Puit Larry Moore went to northeast Las Vegas Wednesday morning for what some might consider the grimmest of tasks. An 18-year-old was dead at a home near Nellis Boulevard and Bonanza Road, the death apparently the result of the teen's diabetic condition. Inside the home was the young man's sister, a woman consumed by grief because her brother had been taken away from her without warning. That's where Moore, 54, stepped in. As a volunteer with the Trauma Intervention Program of Southern Nevada (TIPS), he spent the next three hours with the victim's sister, doing what he does best in the face of such a tragedy. He listened. And after hearing the woman put her pain into words, Moore got on the phone and called her co-workers and friends to make sure they would be there for her after he, the police and the coroner were long gone. "A lot of people ask me how I do it, and I tell them that when I get in my car and leave the scene, I feel that I have really helped someone," Moore said. "It is a very traumatic experience for everyone involved, and when you can help someone in those type of situations, it is something special." A team of 42 TIPS volunteers do work like Moore's every day in the Las Vegas Valley. Around the clock, TIPS volunteers are called to the scenes of homicides, suicides, car accidents, fires, even natural deaths, by police, firefighters and hospitals. Their job, for which they receive no compensation, is to comfort people when they need it the most. "They are worth their weight in gold," said Las Vegas Fire Department spokesman Timothy Szymanski. "Without them, we wouldn't be able to do our jobs." But according to TIPS Crisis Team Manager Marian Thomas, if the nonprofit organization doesn't find more volunteers quickly, it may no longer be able to respond to every traumatic situation in the valley. Since the Las Vegas chapter of TIPS was formed in 1994, calls for its services have skyrocketed. In 1995, TIPS responded to about 30 calls a month. Now more than 100 calls a month are coming in, and that number is rising, Thomas said. "At the worst time of someone's life, we are there to make it just a little bit easier," Thomas said. "But if we don't get some more people, it's going to be a lot harder for us to meet the demand." Thomas warns that the job is not for everyone. Witnessing the results of traumatic events such as homicides, car accidents, even childrens' deaths, can be an emotionally draining experience. "They (volunteers) have to be compassionate, have a cool head and a big heart," Thomas said. For example, Moore said he went to a car accident two weeks ago in which a young woman was killed. He ended up spending several hours comforting the woman's husband, who was distraught at the realization he was going to have to provide for the couple's infant child on his own. After calls like that one, Moore said he talks to Thomas during an informal counseling session to clear his head of the tragedy. "A lot of people come into the program, they see some of the carnage and they can't handle it," Moore said. "You have to just pick yourself up and get on with your life knowing you've helped someone." TIPS volunteers are required to be on call for three 12-hour shifts a month and they have to have their own pager. The shifts runs from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and vice versa, so volunteers need to make sure they can fit those shifts into their schedule. TIPS volunteers also have to go through 55 hours of training and are subject to a background check. In addition, volunteers attend a three-hour educational meeting each month. The next 55-hour training session begins in November. Thomas said TIPS volunteers specialize in listening to people as they grieve, but they do not promote religious faiths, talk about God or get deeply involved in any individual call. Instead, they serve as grief counselors and liaisons between public safety officials and victims' families. They also provide the numbers of social services resources to those who need them, Thomas said. "We do what we call 'dancing the dance' in that we follow the victim's lead," Thomas said. "We do a lot of comforting, but we don't use any of the standard cliches like 'tomorrow it will be better,' 'it was God's will,' and 'you are a young couple so you can have another baby,' because none of them are true." |
| ***Printed on September 30, 1999 |
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