Continue from front page

More than 40 volunteers learned how to help disaster victims start putting their lives back together this month at two United Methodist churches.
Consultants from the United Methodist Committee on Relief conducted one-day training sessions on case management at Grace UMC, Granite Shoals, Aug. 7 and First UMC, Victoria, Aug. 8.
Students included United Methodists, representatives from other faith groups, American Red Cross volunteers and Federal Emergency Management Agency employees. They are working with people affected by July flooding across Southwest Texas.
Students learned how to interview victims of natural disasters, assess needs and help clients through their trauma.
“Case management is advocacy for the survivor,” said Rick Hill, a relief committee disaster-response consultant from Harlow, N.C. “It is helping the survivor realize they have potential inside them to recover.”
Hill said case managers assess what resources and abilities families have, research what help is available in the community and match people with aid so they can better recover.
About 85 percent of disaster victims may find help on their own or pull from their own resources, Hill said. But case management helps those who have no idea where to look or no access to their own resources.
Hill and Barbara Tripp, another relief committee consultant from North Carolina, defined a disaster and discussed steps involved in the emergency, relief and recovery stages. The leaders showed participants where they would fit into the recovery process.
Besides providing resources, Hill said, a case manager must walk alongside clients as they experience changing emotions.
“We look at what has the survivor gone through,” Hill said. “The denial process, the anger attitudes—the euphoria of all the resources coming in to the despair of ‘Oh, my gosh, we’re no longer in the media. They’ve forgotten about us’ to helping the client walk that road to recovery.”
Participants at each session practiced skills necessary to work with disaster victims seeking aid.
Communities always need more caseworkers, Hill said.
“Case management, like many other programs, is always reactive,” he explained. “Folks don’t realize they can be involved until the disaster happens. Then they see the need, and they say, ‘OK, I’ll respond to that.’
“We would encourage training ahead of time to have a pool of volunteers—of early response teams, case managers and construction teams—ready. That way you can call upon people, and you can respond faster after the disaster happens and be more proactive instead of reactive.”
For more information about disaster-response training, contact Susan Hellums, Southwest Texas Volunteers in Mission and disaster-response coordinator, at (956) 661-9771 or shellums@mcfirst.com.