‘Climbing down into that pit’: TIP provides emotional first aid with empathy

First responders spring into action when tragedy strikes, and often a group of dedicated volunteers is prepared to help out when and wherever necessary.

Authorities frequently call upon the Trauma Intervention Program when such events occur, and its on-call reinforcements fill a critical gap in providing emotional first aid and tending to the needs of victims and witnesses in the aftermath of traumatic incidents, allowing public safety officials to focus on their own tasks.

A national organization, the Orange County chapter of TIP was formed in 1995. The division now serves 25 cities and multiple locations under the county’s jurisdiction, 15 hospitals and numerous law enforcement agencies.

MaryEllen Lowrey, the executive director of the local chapter, said they currently work with a team of just over 100 volunteers. A rigorous training program prepares the understudies to bridge the gap for the traumatized en route to the next level of care.

The two-week training equips the volunteers with the tools to say the right thing. They also learn directly from fire, police and medical personnel about how to work with them, Lowrey explained.

MaryEllen Lowrey is the executive director of the Trauma Intervention Program of Orange County.

(Susan Hoffman)

“There’s role-playing because we want them to get it right in the class,” Lowrey said. “We don’t want any mistakes made out in the field.”

After completing the training, new volunteers go through three months of field training, accompanying a veteran of the program to calls for service. The diversity of volunteers is wide-ranging, with the age range spanning from 18 to 80, Lowrey added.

Caelan Lee, 21, studies criminology, law and society at UC Irvine. Lee hopes to have a career in law enforcement. She said she joined TIP, in part, to learn how to communicate and empathize with victims of crime or traumatic incidents.

Last August, Lee took the lead on TIP’s response to the mass shooting at Cook’s Corner in Trabuco Canyon, which left three dead and six others wounded. She notified the dispatcher that she lived close to the scene. Having participated in the program for only a year and a half at that point, Lee recalled a “work mode” setting in.

“I think a big part of that is in our training, it’s very ingrained in us that when we go onto scenes like this and we’re helping people, it’s not our tragedy,” Lee said. “It’s theirs. We’re there to help them and to help first responders.”

About two dozen TIP volunteers responded to Cook’s Corner, Lee recalled. She said they were split up between the crime scene at the biker bar, while others worked on logistical matters.

“More than half of us were at the actual scene of the incident,” Lee said. “Some other people were sent to the sheriff’s department substation to help organize transport and getting hotels and stuff like that for some of the witnesses whose cars were part of the crime scene, so they had no transportation and they couldn’t get home.”

Orange County Undersheriff Jeff Hallock said he has appreciated having TIP as a resource since his time as a patrol officer. The volunteers not only free up authorities to do their job, but they extend their services to the first responders. Hallock has referred to TIP as “part of the first responder system.”

“They’re there to provide that emotional first aid to victims and to family members that are suffering, oftentimes a loss, or quite frankly, the worst day of their life,” Hallock said. “What they also do sometimes at the end of a call is maybe tap a first responder on the shoulder … and make sure they’re OK, or maybe just engage in a conversation with them. …

“It’s sometimes kind of an afterthought because their primary focus is on those family members or the victim’s friends and folks that are around that scene, but I think oftentimes we forget about the first responders, and TIP also provides that resource in terms of on-the-scene, and they’re available for follow-up and conversation after a particular incident.”

Newport Beach Fire Chief Jeff Boyles said it can be cathartic for people to have an opportunity to tell their story, adding that TIP volunteers assist in that manner, too.

Regarding incidents for which a request for TIP volunteers was made, Boyles looked back on a fatal DUI crash on Newport Coast Drive on Dec. 8, 2020.

“The kids were all alive in the back with two dead parents in the front, and we were kind of like, ‘What do we do with this?’” said Boyles, who responded to the call himself.

Gabriela Andrade, left, looks at her husband Henry Saldana Meija during his birthday party in February 2020. The couple were killed and their three children injured in a DUI crash in Newport Beach in December 2020. TIP volunteers were called to the scene that night when the parents were found deceased in the front seats of their vehicle and their kids were alive in the back.

(Courtesy of Dayana Saldana Meija)

“We have a crunched car, we got to do CPR on one of them, we’ve got to transport and get them to the hospital,” Boyles continued, “so we called TIP to come out and kind of help the kids, along with [the police department]. … There were like three or four TIP members that showed up. This is a really challenging, difficult situation. … It was awful.”

The helicopter crash near the Lido Peninsula that killed Officer Nicholas Vella in February 2022 also came to mind for Boyles.

“There’s just so many traumatized eyewitnesses,” Boyles said. “TIP just sort of shows up, and they have an ability to walk around and just talk to people and try to figure out who is traumatized. A lot of people just want to tell their story.”

The Trauma Intervention Program of Orange County saw its volunteers put in more than 60,000 hours for on-call and related response activities in 2023. Volunteers supported 7,150 clients, spent 5,378 hours responding to incidents at the scene and conducted 1,842 phone calls with clients, including follow-up efforts.

“Empathy is climbing down into that pit with that person and feeling their pain,” Lowrey said. “Not trying to talk them out of their pain, not trying to cheer them up, but let their pain exist. People need that in crisis. They need to be acknowledged. They need to be heard. They need to have their feelings validated.

“That’s where a TIP volunteer does what family members can’t do [and] law enforcement can’t do, not because they don’t want to, but because either they don’t have the time or they don’t have the training. We call what we do emotional first aid, but it’s uncommon sense. It’s not what would come naturally.”