By Sue Bergstrom for Valdez City News –
When tragedy strikes in a small town, it touches everyone. In Valdez there’s seldom more than one degree of separation between any two people. Everyone steps up to offer assistance; donate funds or food or clothes, cook, watch children, foster pets or give people a place to stay. They post signs and announcements on social media and generally circle the wagons. They offer words of support and they empathize. The community as a whole feels the impact when people have troubles.
Fortunately, the community has some committed and well-equipped professionals who are there to help deal with that impact. Valdez has a high percentage of trained first responders for a small town, including volunteers. There are a lot of people in this town who are trained in CPR, First Aid, Emergency Response and Crisis Intervention, all areas of training available to the public in Valdez. Fire Chief George Keeney reminds the public that each member of an emergency response team has a job to do, whether directly providing medical assistance, protecting the patient’s privacy or crowd control for everyone’s safety. The best way to help is to stay out of the way and let them do their jobs. He asks that people remember that the hospital does not follow up with EMTs about patients’ condition and HIPAA prevents them discussing what they do know.
There are a variety of people who offer services to the community after the first response. These services are the ones that not everyone may be aware of. As a community reaching out to help each other, it’s a good idea to know what services are out there so you can pass the word. In the case of a recent local tragedy, one of them was the schools. Although the young person was not a Valdez City Schools Student, the Superintendent’s office was mindful of the effect on students.
School Board President, Joe Prax said, “We as parents and board members struggle with what to say but administrators and staff have been listening to students and helping them directly. I am extremely impressed by the Superintendents leadership in this and the building administrators and counselors response. They have reached out to kids and to parents on numerous levels”
The Superintendent’s office sent a letter to parents to let them know what services were available. (link to document) Counseling, admin staff and teachers met to discuss strategies. Everyone, including custodial staff were asked to keep an eye out for students who might need assistance and counselors visited classrooms and made sure students knew where to go for help.
Providence Valdez Counseling Center regularly offers individual, group and family therapy as well as 24 hour crisis intervention. Manager Heidi Fox stated, “I would encourage members of the community not to hesitate to reach out and get help. There are people and services available who are here to help during difficult times. Nobody has to go through tough situations alone.”
PVCC Crisis Line 835-2838 or after five, 835-2249. Ask for the PVCC on-call nurse.
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