Response Network
In Los Angeles, several hundred Volunteer Ministers are organized around a 50-man core group acting as an immediate response team. They comprise a “minute-man” system of communications and pre-designated functions for fast response to city-wide disasters. The priority for the year 2000 is to double the ranks of both the immediate response team and the broader network of volunteers to be able to better respond to virtually all types of L.A. emergencies. While natural disasters strike infrequently, many other forms of disasters—injury and illness, fire, conflict, urban strife—strike every day.
“If we are fully prepared, the worst will never have a chance to happen,” says Kathy Evans, a hospital nurse who heads up the Church of Scientology Volunteer Ministers network in Los Angeles. Evans organizes seminars at the Church’s Celebrity Center International in Hollywood, in which scores of volunteers, both Church members and non-members, have been trained to provide spiritual assistance in emergencies and disasters. Evans and the Volunteer Ministers work with ENLA and many other groups across L.A.
Volunteers train with the Volunteer Ministers Handbook to be able to deliver “assists,” simple yet highly effective procedures which relieve the spiritual trauma associated with an accident, illness or an emotionally stressful situation. Assists enable an individual to restore communication with his own body, his environment, and with others. Easy to learn, assists were developed by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard, and enjoy wide application by people from all walks of life.
One of the most commonly used assists is the “touch assist,” through which a person is put into communication with injured or ill parts of his body and which, when used in addition to first aid or other medical handlings, speeds up the healing process. Another assist is the “locational,” which helps a disoriented, confused, or in-shock individual to quickly get back in touch with his surroundings and other people by reorienting him to them. This can be particularly important in helping a person pull himself together and start helping others in an emergency or disaster.
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