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Chaplains come through in crises Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Police chaplain Larry Blight, right, listens in on a shift-change briefing at the Jackson County Sheriff�s Department. Blight tries to keep up on officers� activities, making himself available for counseling or help with victims when officers need him. They�re a shoulder for police, firefighters � and the public By Joanna Collins Nobody wants to tell a stranger a loved one is dead. But Larry Blight has volunteered to do it 275 times in the last 20 years. Blight is the chaplain for the Jackson County Sheriff�s Department, the Medford Fire Department and Mercy Flights. He acts as counselor for the agencies in between his duties as administrative pastor at the First Church of the Nazarene in Medford. He is one of a half-dozen chaplains throughout the valley who are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. All volunteers, chaplains help both the public and emergency workers get through difficult situations. They also act as a type of middleman between the two. For most people, seeing a plainclothes person knocking on the door isn�t as unsettling as seeing a uniform. "(Having a chaplain) helps us through a difficult task," says Lt. Dewey Patten of the sheriff�s department. "It helps the victim�s family." Giving death notifications is his most difficult duty, Blight admits. After 275 times, Blight�s seen many reactions. Some people just say thank you. Others deny it. Most start crying. Then there are people who have attacked him, ripped off his badge or even pulled out a gun. But there�s more to being a chaplain than bearing bad news. Chaplains spend part of their time counseling victims. They might soothe a person while his home burns or accompany a family to the hospital. Blight recalls a time when a woman witnessed her sister�s death. He sat with the woman for more than five hours, just listening and giving her advice on how to handle the incident. "They want to make decisions," says Blight. "But it�s very hard to make rational decisions in irrational situations." The other part of a chaplain�s time is spent with emergency workers, visiting an injured officer, counseling a paramedic after an accident or even saving a firefighter�s marriage from job stress. "We�re trying to provide some kind of emotional, spiritual support for them when they need someone to be caring," says Ron Norris, chaplain at the Eagle Point Police Department and pastor at St. John Lutheran Church. With an office in the department, it makes it easier for Norris to get to know officers and go on patrols with them. He conducts training for the officers on issues like how to give death notifications. Along with teaching, he attends officer training so he knows what to do in a crisis. "If there�s anything I can do to help them in those situations, I want to do that," says Norris. The traumatic situations that someone might see once in a lifetime are incidents that emergency workers deal with every day, says Dave Cook, director of medical operations at Mercy Flights. They�re well-trained to handle most incidents, but occasionally a crisis will hit home. "Everybody�s human," says Cook. "When I first started 15 years ago or so, the direction was more that it shouldn�t bother you, bite the bullet and go and deal with what�s happening. That�s not healthy." Now agencies are more accepting of the problems caused by job stress and willing to bring in chaplains. "If they don�t deal with some of those situations, we�ve found that they deal with post traumatic stress syndrome found in Vietnam vets," says Brian Fish, a training emergency medical services chief with the Medford Fire Department. Fish says it�s sometimes easier for fire personnel to talk to a chaplain rather than have a formal conversation with a chief. "If someone can just open up and talk about it, it helps them to process that incident mentally," says Fish. Eagle Point Police Chief David Strand agrees. "Police officers are able to handle pretty much everything that comes along � it takes a different kind of person to be an officer," he says. "But nobody�s so tough they can handle something forever." The Medford Police Department chaplain, Bob Gass, has an idea of what it takes. "Being a former police officer, I understand where they�re coming from," says Gass. "I understand their mentality." Gass, a pastor at Harvest Baptist Temple, worked for the Siskiyou County Sheriff�s Department in California for three years in the �70s before he traded in his uniform. "It�s kind of a privilege to be involved in the ministry and with police as well," Gass says. "It�s the best of both worlds." Although many chaplains are also pastors, religion stays out of the profession. Chaplains act as counselors primarily, but they will pray with people if they request it. "It�s not my job to preach to them," says Norris. "Whether they have religion or not, it doesn�t matter." Blight says he became a chaplain to get outside the walls of the church and help people who typically don�t have a pastor or someone to turn to in a time of crisis. "I didn�t want to lose touch with what nonchurch people think," he says. "Being a police chaplain is something you really want to have to do," says Gass. "Sometimes it�s hard and sometimes I�m tired, but I think it�s worthwhile." Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. 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