A retired university professor at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, formerly Texas A&I, Dr. Pace is a volunteer crisis counselor for the American Red Cross. For her, late May and early June have been just another day at the office, except she works free, the hours are long, conditions are rough, and - what office?
Hers is a specialized coterie of Red Cross volunteers trained to navigate the often-tumultuous torrent of problems after a disaster - natural and otherwise. She has seen it all: floods, tornadoes, plane crashes, wildfires, hurricanes, and, yes, even 9-11’s “ground zero.”
“Actually, I’ve been in everything but an earthquake,” Dr. Pace said.
She helps people solve the immediate problems brought on by the disaster at hand.
“It’s really crisis intervention. It’s meeting the immediate needs of the person. No long-term therapy. It’s not how mean your mother was,” she said. “It’s what is relevant now. It’s all about this terrible experience and how I can help get past the immediate problem.”
Dr. Pace is the local program’s linchpin who has set the standards for their chapter’s training and outreach, said Sandra Gage, executive director of the American Red Cross’ Heart of Texas chapter, headquartered in Waco.
In addition to her doctorate from Oklahoma State University in experimental social psychology, Dr. Pace is also a certified psychologist and licensed professional counselor who had counseling experience before she signed up as a Red Cross volunteer.
For some victims, it may mean helping them get basics such as medications, temporary shelter or schooling for their children. Some, because of their health needs, may need special housing or food. Some were in personal crises before, and the destruction has set them over the edge. Almost all victims need coping skills under drastic circumstances because of their profound grief over the loss of their loved ones and their homes. At some point, all need to talk about their losses and their struggles, lest their grieving “wound more deeply” in solitude and silence.
So Red Cross counselors start the process of healing and restoring stability, said Ms. Gage. Such disasters shake the very core of communities. “In a disaster, victims talk about losing their home, mementoes and photos, their memories of loved ones. Those things give our lives meaning and substance. We’re here to tell them that there is a tomorrow after today.”
This season especially has been the summer of discontent for storms and floodwaters swelling levees along the Mississippi and its tributaries like fat prey in the belly of snake. The Red Cross summoned Dr. Pace to Iowa just a couple of days after on May 25, when F-5 tornados wiped out major portions of Parkersburg and New Hampton, killing eight.
Meanwhile, nearby residents along the Cedar River were preparing for the worst. Levees were melting under rising waters, and Cedar Falls residents were ordered to evacuate. While still at Parkersburg, the Red Cross called her again: Since she was still close by, could she stay longer at Cedar Falls? Yes, she replied, and she left the tornado-ravaged areas for the floods.
“I had worked in the same area in 1993 floods, and everybody could see that the same kind of catastrophe was going to happen again,” Dr. Pace said.
The Red Cross crisis teams are usually interdisciplinary teams of psychological counselors, social workers, nurses, physicians and other highly trained personnel who immediately, expertly can help disaster victims. The Red Cross arranges volunteers’ flights, room and board. The counselors donate their time and expertise.
Dr. Pace never knows where accommodations or who her roommates will be. For some assignments, Dr. Pace sleeps on cots in dormitories, makeshift shelters or hotels of varying quality and cleanliness.
Each crisis carries its own special set of problems and solutions. She refuses to compare disasters, their victims, the horrors they endure or their recovery. A victim’s response to and recovery from a disaster has many variables: age, religious beliefs, gender, cultural and socioeconomic background and existing mental illness, among them. Whether the victims lived in urban, suburban or rural areas also makes a difference.
In her experience, coping with the Midwest wind and water catastrophes cannot equate to dealing with Katrina’s tragic wind and water in New Orleans. Helping Floridians in a hurricane’s aftermath is different from assisting those burnt out from California wildfires.
In her observation, tornado survivors seem to recover more rapidly than those of other disasters. “Tornadoes don’t last very long. They blow through and then they’re gone usually. It’s a mess, but it’s over with,” she said. Resident can immediately start to clean up and move on. Floods, on the other hand, linger and create a tsunami of other complications.
Her toughest assignment thus far has been New York after September 11, 2001. When she talks about it, her soft voice grows almost inaudible and her words inarticulate. Even seven years later, emotions still well up when she talks about what she saw, heard and did.
Although Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross in 1881, not until 1989 did the national Red Cross officially recognize the need for organized the mental health services for disaster survivors. Over the next decade, the Red Cross Disaster Mental Health Services program developed and evolved for both victims and volunteers.
Dr. Pace began volunteering in 1992 as a counselor with United Way while still teaching at Kingsville. When Hurricane Andrew, the second-most-destructive hurricane in U.S. history, wrecked havoc in Florida and Louisiana that August, she learned that the Red Cross was seeking volunteer counselors.
She surmised that she would not be able to get the time off because of her classroom duties. Her university supervisor offered to cover her classes. In all she spent three weeks in Florida and Louisiana on her first assignment.
The work was difficult but gratifying, and she discovered a unique service that only a few were capable of providing. Over the years, the university continued to allow her to volunteer. Sixteen years later, even after her retirement, she has stayed active with Red Cross, including training staff and volunteers.
Dr. Pace grew up observing firsthand people in grief and crisis because her parents, Edward and Dorothy Pace, were respected directors of Pace Funeral Home in Temple. They were already deceased when Dr. Pace began her Red Cross volunteer work, but she feels confident they would be proud.
Whenever she volunteers with the Red Cross, she goes by her professional name, Dorothy Jane Pace, which she used when teaching in Kingsville. Now that she and her husband, Jim Ham, have retired back to Temple, their hometown, she goes socially by Jane Pace Ham.
Dr. Pace gives much credit to her husband, a retired news announcer for KCEN-TV. “He has really supported me and keeps the home going so I can fly off at a day’s notice,” she said.
For now, she scans newspaper front pages each morning. She can expect a phone call from the Red Cross at any time, asking her to pack her bags and head to an airport. The Midwest levees are still breaking, California landscapes still smolder red hot, and hurricane season has just begun.
The Red Cross will be there, and so will Dr. Pace.
pbenoit@temple-telegram.com
The hits just keep on coming
So far, 2008 has been a tough year, and may even top last year’s disasters. The top five American Red Cross disaster responses for 2007 were:
All yearlong: Family home fires
June: North Texas and Midwest floods (Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma)
April: New England Nor’easter (New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire)
August: Midwest floods (Ohio, Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, Oklahoma)
October: Southern California wildfires
Even Red Cross founder heard Texans’ pleas for help
The hallmark of the Red Cross’ activities in Texas probably began with the September 1900 Galveston hurricane that killed an estimated 6,000 and destroyed more than 3,600 buildings.
Clara Barton, 78, who founded the American Red Cross 19 years before, personally traveled to the devastated port city to oversee relief efforts with her handpicked team of workers. The Red Cross raised money for their cause by selling photographs of the storm devastation to news agencies.
Meanwhile, under the leadership of Temple businessman Horace H. Swink, Bell County citizens generously loaded several large railroad boxcars of provisions immediately after the storm.
Despite the outpouring of help, Barton, a seasoned veteran of so many catastrophes, was unprepared for Galveston’s devastation. She wrote that her workers “grew pale and ill” dealing with the massive deaths, extraordinary rubble and Texas heat.
Even Barton, who had prided herself on surviving so many other difficult situations, grew weak and weary. She said she “needed the help of a steadying hand as I walked to the waiting Pullman on the track, courteously tendered free of charge to take us away.”
Galveston was her last crusade. She retired as Red Cross’ head in 1904.
Crisis counseling is a special calling, but rewarding
Being a Red Cross crisis counselor is a special calling for trained professionals – tough, intense and rewarding.
Sandra Gage, chief executive officer of the Heart of Texas chapter of the American Red Cross, admitted crisis counseling is not for the faint-hearted, but the needs are great.
The Heart of Texas chapter sponsors ongoing recruitment and training because directors never know when or where the next disaster will strike. Some may have the flexibility to travel out-of-state. Others may find their niche as crisis counselors closer to home, such as for home fires or working with military families, especially with deployments.
The needs are many and varied, said Ms. Gage. Last year, the Heart of Texas chapter sent 13,000 messages to military families, including welfare checks, and this year have seen those numbers rise threefold, Ms. Gage said. The Red Cross arranges room, board and transportation when necessary.
Headquartered in Waco, the Heart of Texas chapter includes 1.1 million residents living in 18 counties and more than 19,000 square miles. Branch offices are located in Temple and Killeen.
To be a crisis counselor, applicants must first be certified or licensed in their fields – social workers, licensed counselors, psychologists, nurses, physicians or physicians’ assistants.
“We cannot train someone to be a psychologist or social worker. People have to already have that certification in hand,” Ms. Gage said.
After filling out the application, potential volunteers will then undergo background checks. After the background checks, applicants must complete Red Cross training. In some cases, they may work alongside another more experienced volunteer, such as Dr. Dorothy Pace, to complete orientation.
After a crisis counselor returns from the field, the Red Cross conducts a debriefing and provides counseling resources to allow the healers time to heal.
“After you’ve actively worked in a shelter, your mind is as tired as the clients you’re working with,” Ms. Gage said. “We have to take care of ourselves; otherwise, we can’t take care of others.”
To learn more about volunteering, Bell County residents may contact local Red Cross director Bob Roberts in Temple at 254-773-5675 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays; and in Killeen at 254-200-4400 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
