MADD: Victim Support

Video Transcript

"MADD goes in, we've actually have the largest victim service organization in the entire country. We work with families as we call it from the moment of impact. So we're working with families. We work with law enforcement that are there at the crash scene. We work with chaplains that are there at the hospital that inform the families of the death or an injury. We work with hospitals. We work with all different kinds of organizations but one of the things we work with individual victims is, we work with them with financial services as well. We help guide them through if it's lost wages, if it's funeral expenses, or if its medical expenses we help guide them through the process with that through VOCA (the victim program that's on the national level). Some of the other things we work with them is counseling services. We help guide them through the counseling, the grieving process. We have got some really terrific brochures and materials and support and counseling service. We offer a 24 hour helpline that people can call 24/7, 365 days a year. That there's a ear that someone can, they can lean on. Some of the other things we work with them is court accompaniedment. A lot of these families have never been through the court system before and so we actually assign them a trained victim advocate and they go through and accompany them through the courts. They kind of kept guide them and lead them through the court process. We usually know the D.A.'s. We know the Judges. We kind of know the system and we help share that with them to make it an easier transition as we can. Of course it's never easy when they've had a family member that's injured or killed due to drunk driving but we try and do what we can and we're there. We work with victims throughout the year as well as years and years after an actual crash happens. We work with some families we work with twenty, twenty-five years and we continue to work with them on a daily basis. "