Clergy told there is more they can do

northglenn» Casualties from mass shootings in the country this year have already surpassed last year’s count, and violent crimes on a smaller scale scar hundreds of people every day.

“There are theological issues that come with violence. You have to rebuild your whole sense of yourself and the world,” said Howard Dotson, a chaplain with the Loveland police and interim pastor of First United Presbyterian Church in Loveland.

Dotson organized “Equipping Spiritual Care Providers for Trauma Survivors” at the Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church in Northglenn on Saturday. He is an advocate for pastors and church leaders taking a more active role in helping crime victims through a healing process that can take years.

The event, which drew about three-dozen people from Nebraska and northern Colorado, is part of a larger push by the Presbyterian Church to help pastors recognize symptoms of post-traumatic stress, and provide sufferers with the help they need before it becomes a chronic disorder.

Sergeant Jim Kukuris, a 32-year veteran of the Denver Police Department, including 12 years working homicides, told the group some crime victims feel everything will resolve itself if they can get justice through a successful conviction.

But the trials themselves can be grueling, forcing survivors of violence or their loved ones to relive everything that went wrong. Often, a conviction doesn’t provide the closure expected, and victims don’t understand why symptoms of unresolved grief hound them.

“Families think it will go away,” Kukuris said. “It doesn’t.”

Many police departments have chaplains on hand to help in the immediate aftermath of a crime. And Colorado has one of the best victim advocate systems in the country, said Sunny Ward, who works in that role with Larimer County District Attorney’s office.

But Dotson said psychological problems can pop up months after a crime, and that is where where pastors and counselors can do more to help victims cope.

Among the manifestations of traumatic stress is hyper-vigilance, or a state of constant unease and fear that the world is imbued with dangers, said Alice Hinkeldey, a former Veteran’s Administration counselor.

Constant stress over a long period, if untreated, can lead people to self-medicate through drugs and drinking or to spiral into depression. Sometimes, victims end up harming themselves or those closest to them.

Victims need to seek out people and resources who will genuinely help them, Dotson said. Clergy used to fill that role more, but others are stepping in more frequently.

“There are people out there who take advantage of a bad situation,'” Kukuris said.

Dotson has a less charitable name for them – “tragedy pimps.” He said a cottage industry of people who listen to police scanners and show up at crime scenes has developed. They befriend grieving families and appear before cameras on their behalf.

But they don’t stay around long enough to provide victims with the long-term help they need, he said.