Trauma volunteers who render emotional first aid are in demand

Stacy J. Willis

Tuesday, March 26, 2002 | 11:12 a.m.

When Diana Martin found her ex-boyfriend dead in his Las Vegas house last year, she had the expected reaction: complete shock.

When police arrived to investigate the apparent suicide, Martin, 51, needed help -- help coping, help communicating with officers, help knowing what to do next.

Along with the police, a man arrived on the scene and introduced himself as a Trauma Intervention Program volunteer.

"I don't even remember his name. He just appeared, and I don't know what I would have done without him," Martin recalls. "He talked to me and said there was nothing I could have done, and he helped me fill out a police report. I couldn't write, I was just pacing and talking -- I was hysterical -- and he wrote it down for me."

The volunteer stayed with Martin until officers had left -- six hours later. Additionally, he gave her a pamphlet of resources for counseling and support groups.

He was one of 38 Trauma Intervention Program (TIP) volunteers who, upon police or fire department request, come to the scene of tragedies to help survivors in the crucial post-trauma hours. TIP is a national organization that has been recognized for its victim advocacy work by the U.S. Department of Justice.

But the Las Vegas chapter -- which was established eight years ago -- doesn't have enough volunteers to handle the growing number of traumatic incidents in the area. Earlier this month, organizers played host to a training program but had to cancel it because of low attendance.

"Eight years ago we had 25 trauma calls per month from Metro or the fire department, and last month we had 109 calls," said Marian Thomas, TIP coordinator. Police officers and rescue personnel call TIP when they know a survivor will need assistance.

"We try to have two volunteers available per shift, but we don't have enough volunteers to cover that right now. So the existing volunteers step up," she said. "But we need help."

TIP volunteers in Clark County have quietly worked the scenes of many well-known traumas, including helping the parents at the Jessica Williams accident scene, and assisting United Airlines employees after Sept. 11, Thomas said.

Volunteers go through 55 hours of training with rescue personnel and mental health professionals to prepare to render what Thomas calls "emotional first aid."

"It takes compassion and dedication," Thomas, who has been a volunteer for seven years, said.

"The reasons people get into it are either they have had a trauma in their life and had no one there to help them, or someone was there and they want to provide the same help," Thomas, who became a volunteer after her mother died, said.

Volunteers are on call for 12-hour shifts three times a month.

"It is very intense. You have to call on your life experience. It's very emotional," Thomas said. "The hardest case I think I had was the Jessica Williams case. I have teenage daughters."

In addition to "just being there for survivors," volunteers help people wade through necessary paperwork and proceedings.

"People don't know what the coroner's procedure is and then there's the mortuary, and the police report. All of these unknown things come up very fast," she said.

Sheriff Jerry Keller said in a statement to the TIP national organization, "The TIP organization's interaction and response to the requests from Metro have always been expeditious and most effective."

For Martin, the volunteer who assisted her was invaluable. "He was so helpful -- I really don't know what I would have done without him," she said.

In the late-night hours she spent at the death scene with the TIP volunteer while police completed their investigation, Martin asked him why he had become a volunteer.

"He said, 'I've been very lucky and had a good life and this is my way of giving back,' " she said.

The next TIP volunteer training session begins April 18. For more information, call (702) 452-2049 or visit www.tipnational.org.