TIP 4 Kids
The Need
Children do not receive the support they need immediately following tragic events. The reasons include:
- Parents are unable to provide support because they are physically or emotionally injured
- parents are taken into custody by law enforcement
- children don’t express their need for assistance
- and emergency responders are preoccupied with the emergency situation.
When TIP Volunteers Assist Children (Actual Calls)
- Upon returning from school a child discovers his father hanging in the garage
- Three small children are emotionally traumatized in a hospital emergency room after an auto accident
in which their mother is killed.
- Four children are left alone when their parents are taken into custody after a drug raid.
- Two children witness a third child killed by a speeding Amtrak train
- Fifteen children witness a man intentionally drive into their day care center killing two.
- An 8-year old child discovers his father died of a drug overdose.
- Thirty children witness a child crushed by a park bench at a YMCA park.
TIP Assistance Examples
- Provide emotional comfort and support.
- Protect from on scene dangers (traffic, gruesome sights . . .)
- Provide with “comfort bears,” coloring books, and other comforting and reassuring materials
- Explain emergency procedures in simple terms.
- Reassure traumatized parent(s) that their children are being cared for.
- Educate parents(s) and provide written materials about how to deal with children after a tragic event.
- Arrange for follow up counseling services for children.
- Provide on scene support to children by TIP Teens when appropriate
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