THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 10, 1995 TAG: 9510100296
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHARLENE CASON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
On the recent deployment of the carrier Theodore Roosevelt, the Armed Forces Emergency Services office of the Red Cross sent 1,800 messages to the ship in 183 days.
The messages created a lifeline between sailors and their families at home.
The Emergency Services office, which gets most of its funding from the United Way of South Hampton Roads, is based at the Red Cross' Tidewater Chapter headquarters on Brambleton Avenue. It consists of just two full-time case workers, one secretary, a director and a part-time intern; yet it handles about 500 cases each month, plus 600 more in satellite offices at three local Navy bases.
Its primary mission is to help military families communicate in times of need.
``We are the front line in emergency communications,'' said Dawnelle Cruze, the office's senior case worker. ``And, as a crisis intervention agency, we try to make our contact as human as possible.
``We're not just gathering information and sending it to the commands. Our job is to be empathetic, to help people deal with the emotional stuff of crisis.''
One minute, Emergency Services may be letting a new father know his baby has arrived safely; the next it may be helping a deployed sailor get home for a funeral.
Cruze says 80 percent to 85 percent of the calls she receives are from wives wanting to send word to their husbands about an urgent matter - a critical illness in the family, for example, or a money problem such as a missed paycheck.
Case workers also intervene in child abuse, sexual assault and suicide cases.
They help, first, by just listening to callers. When they have verified a problem, they send a message to the service member's command. That message is ``an official communication,'' assuring the command that the Red Cross has checked out the emergency.
Because it's not uncommon for service members to be married to spouses from other countries, language can sometimes be a barrier to problem-solving, Cruze said. If that happens, she contacts the Red Cross language bank, which has 130 volunteer interpreters who speak 38 languages.
Emergency Services also routinely does ``health and welfare checks'' to allay fears and soothe worried loved ones who haven't heard from their service member for too long. And the office helps provide information to the Navy for ``alive and well'' letters, which enable a spouse to close on the purchase of a house back home while a service member is deployed.
Turn-around time for helping with most situations is about 48 hours if a ship is at sea, 24 hours if the office is dealing with an overseas base, and usually the same day if the emergency is in the United States, Cruze said.
However, some requests cannot be remedied officially. Cruze often gets calls from wives wanting to let their deployed husbands know the family dog has died. She is not allowed to send an official communication in that case.
``We can offer alternative solutions and guide them through why the alternative is a good one. We are largely a referral service,'' Cruze said.
``But our first priority is emergencies, and the preservation of family morale.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by CHRISTOPHER REDDICK/
Dawnelle Cruze, senior case worker for the Red Cross' Armed Forces
Emergency Services office in Norfolk, handles the notification of a
birth in a military family. The department notifies military members
when there is an emergency or birth at home. The Emergency Services
office gets most of its funding from the United Way of South Hampton
Roads.
by CNB