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| Volunteers offer comfort to those hit by tragedy |
| By FRANK GEARY Like dozens of times before, Marian Thomas wasn't sure what to expect when the coroner's office called. Minutes later, she found herself next to the corpse of a man who had killed himself. "I sat on the floor with the mother where he had just committed suicide. She held her son's head in her lap and she asked me to hold his hand, so I sat there and held his hand," Thomas said. For the mother, it was a once-in-a-lifetime tragedy. For Thomas, though, it was just another day on duty with Southern Nevada's chapter of the Trauma Intervention Program, or TIP. The program is a 19-year-old national nonprofit agency with more than 20 chapters in many Western states, Florida and Massachusetts. The Las Vegas effort, which celebrates its 10th anniversary Tuesday, responds to roughly 120 emergencies a month and is considered the busiest chapter per capita in the country, said Thomas, crisis team manager for the local group. Police officers, firefighters, hospitals and the coroner's office call on the agency's 45 volunteers around-the-clock to comfort and counsel a victim's family, friends or co-workers in the wake of a tragedy, said Las Vegas Fire Department Deputy Chief Ken Riddle, who serves on the local TIP Advisory Board and who was instrumental in bringing the program to Las Vegas. At first, Riddle was skeptical of the program because he couldn't believe people would volunteer for what can be an upsetting, gruesome and time-consuming task. "I was surprised there were this many people willing to give back to their community, especially considering they can be on call all night," Riddle said. "If you have someone who is hysterical and screaming, it's nice to be able to have a citizen volunteer who can hold their hand and comfort them." Volunteers, who receive 55 hours of training and are required to undergo a background check, range in age from teenagers to senior citizens. They are on call for three 12-hour shifts a month. They include retirees, real estate agents, homemakers, and medical personnel. The volunteers may be asked to meet with a motorist shaken up after killing a pedestrian, an elderly person who lost a spouse of many years, parents whose child succumbs to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or the traumatized victims of a home-invasion robbery. Sherrie Burch, a volunteer who went on the first Southern Nevada TIP call March 2, 1994, said the average volunteer stays with the program about two years before they get burnt out or sidelined by a particularly troubling tragedy. One volunteer couldn't participate any longer after responding to the deaths of three infants in one evening, Burch said. Burch on Feb. 5 was called to University Medical Center to meet with the family of Donald Ursem, who was shot and killed in the doorway of his home near Jones Boulevard and Vegas Drive. "It was extremely compassionate, especially at that time," said Ursem's son, Perry Ursem. "Considering you're in a state of shock and don't know where to turn, it's comforting to know someone who cares is out there." After meeting with the Ursem family, Burch was asked to walk down the hall of the hospital and meet with the family of a high school girl who was taken to the hospital after she was badly injured while surfing atop a car. The girl died while at the hospital. "You never know what you are going to find and how it is going to hit you," Burch said. "I have been on SIDS deaths, homicides, suicides, Alzheimer's' cases, robberies, burglaries, home invasions. ... Unfortunately, most involve death and a large percentage are suicides." TIP volunteers responded June 3, 1999, to an Albertsons grocery store at Sahara Avenue and Valley View Boulevard after Zane Floyd killed four employees with a shotgun. They met at a nearby restaurant with employees who survived the early-morning rampage. Volunteers also responded March 19, 2000, to a stretch of Interstate 15 near the Las Vegas Motor Speedway after six teenagers were killed when a van driven by Jessica Williams plowed into them while they picked up trash as part of a youth probation program. Thomas accompanied the coroner to the home of one of the victims. The victim's grandmother spoke only Spanish, but Thomas didn't need an interpreter to understand her. "I remember the grandmother on her knees, hugging me around my stomach, begging me to tell her that it wasn't her grandson. I don't speak Spanish, but I knew exactly what she was saying," Thomas said. The national TIP program was launched in 1985 by Southern California clinical psychologist Wayne Fortin. He saw a need for it after treating patients who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder years after losing a loved one to an unexpected tragedy, Thomas said. The program has been recognized by former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, Harvard University and the Ford Foundation, according to TIP literature. The local chapter for years has been active in Las Vegas, Henderson and unincorporated Clark County, Riddle said. More recently, the services have been available in Boulder City, and in the past year TIP started providing services in North Las Vegas and Laughlin. TIP responded to 20 percent more calls in 2003 than in 2002. The program receives 9 cents from the county and cities for every resident in each jurisdiction. The group has an annual budget of about $100,000. Thomas is the agency's only full-time employee; two part-time employees were hired within the past year, she said. Riddle said local taxpayers are getting a great deal, in part because TIP volunteers free up police officers, firefighters and other emergency responders because they aren't needed to stay with a distraught loved one of a victim. "You have got strangers going out 24 hours a day in every kind of weather helping strangers. Their pay is a hug and a thank you, and they keep coming back for more," Thomas said. TRAINING PROGRAM The Trauma Intervention Program is recruiting volunteers for a 55- hour training program that starts Thursday and runs through March 14. For more information about the class or TIP call Marian Thomas, crisis team manager, at ***-**** or ***-****. On the Internet, go to www.tipnational.org. |
| ***Printed on February 29, 2004 |
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