march/april 2016 60plus

Choreographing a Modern LifeDancer Patti Zukaitis

Jack “Hambone” Hamilton An Omaha Constant

Omaha’s Lost Religious BuildingsA Look Back at the Deconstructed, Deconsecrated

March/April 2016

MARGIE TREMBLEY Hatmaker Remembers Golden Age of Chapeaux

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GwenGwen LemkeContributing Editor, 60PLUS In Omaha

KEEP HEALTHY

I HOPE YOU ENJOY THIS issue of 60Plus. Those readers in the 60Plus age group are among a growing population seg-ment. The story on geriatric nurses contains very interesting

statistics. For example, “by 2030 one in five adults—88 million people—will be 65 or older according to the US Census.”

About 10,000 adults turn 65 every day.You’ll find other statics here regarding health. One alarming

statistic is that by 2030, 7.7 million people will have alzheimers disease—up from 4.9 million in 2007.

Keeping active is one way to help prevent visits to the doctor, and we tell stories about active, interesting people in each issue. Stories like Creighton professor of dance Patti Zukaitis and Jack “Hambone” Hamilton, whose hobby is making model airplanes out of beverage ccans. The table of contents has very brief information on these stories.

If you have suggestions on what you would like to see in 60Plus or know someone that would make an interesting story, you can email me at: [email protected]. I will present it at our editorial meeting.

Thank you for reading 60Plus. This stand-alone magazine is also featured as a section of Omaha Magazine. Want to read the entire magazine?

Visit: omahamagazine.com/digital-flip-book

60PLUS FROM THE EDITOR

march/april 2016 | 60PLUS S3

ACTIVE LIVING Choreographing a Modern Life

Dancer Patti Zukaitis ............................... S4

FEATUREGeriatric Nurses

Older Adults Count on Those Who Understand .......................................S6

FEATURE Jack “Hambone” Hamilton

An Omaha Constant ...............................S10

FEATURE Margie Trembley

Hatmaker Remembers Golden Age of Chapeaux ...........................................S14

HEALTH Know Your Blood Sugar Levels

Prediabetes is Your Early Warning Sign .................................S18

HISTORY Omaha’s Lost Religious Buildings

A Look Back at the Deconstructed, Deconsecrated ...............S20

HOPELESSLY DEVOTED Suicidologist John Erickson .............................S22

CONTENTS volume 3 • issue 6


by daisy hutzell-rodman | photography by bill sitzmann

60PLUS ACTIVE LIVING

CHOREOGRAPHING A MODERN LIFE dancer patti zukaitis

PATTI ZUKAITIS OFTEN DOES what is termed plié relevé. The 64-year-old bends her legs down, keeping her knees

in alignment over her feet, then she stretches up, up onto her toes as high as she can.

She has reached many heights in her 40-plus years as a dancer, yet she doesn’t see herself a star.

“Patti’s not the type of person who looks to be in the spotlight very much,” says Patrick Roddy, who heads Creighton University’s dance department, where Zukaitis is the other professor.

Zukaitis began classes at age 9, but dis-covered her true passion for dance as a college student. She studied at Creighton with her longtime teacher Valerie Roche and became one of the first graduates of the dance program.

Roche, a professional ballerina since age 12, drove Omaha dance from the begin-nings of Omaha Regional Ballet Academy in spring 1964 into the early years of the now Omaha Academy of Ballet and beyond.

Zukaitis became a teacher at Creighton’s dance program while a student.

“Valerie kind of pushed me in this direc-tion, and I fell into it,” Zukaitis says. “I didn’t have a dream to be a ballerina.”

It was at Creighton that Zukaitis discov-ered modern dance, a form she has loved and performed since with Creighton and local companies DanceScape and Omaha Modern Dance Collective.

In 1982, Zukaitis’ husband, John, had just finished medical school and obtained a job in New York City, partially because living in New York was a dream of Patti’s. She wanted to attend New York University, and true to form, she entered their prestigious Tisch School of the Arts in a nontraditional way.

“I was so naive,” Zukaitis says. “I called and said, ‘I’d like to enroll.’ I got a secretary who said, ‘Oh. People have been auditioning all spring for this.’”

Heartbroken, her brain pirouetting from the rejection, Zukaitis called her mother, who told her to just march down there and prove to them she was worthy of being in the program.

Zukaitis went to the campus and spoke to the director, who told her to come down for the first day of classes. As it turned out, one student had been accepted, but had not yet committed to the program. “I took a ballet class and I took a modern class,” Zukaitis says. “I was auditioning, but I didn’t realize it.” At the end of that first day, the director offered her the final position in the program.

Their first daughter, Kathryn, now 30, was born while she was in school. Even with a young baby, Zukaitis earned a Master of Fine Arts in dance in 1986.

A second daughter, Lucy, was born in 1988. When their son Jack was due in 1991, the Zukaitis family, cramped into a one-bedroom apartment, moved back to Omaha. Patti returned to Creighton.

“It was almost as though I never left,” she says. “I just contacted Valerie and she said come on over.”

A third daughter, Julie Rose, came along in 1994.

The professor and mom also taught for Omaha Academy of Ballet with Roche until 2002, when Roche retired after 40 years with the school.

“I told Valerie, OK, I’ll do it [be the direc-tor], but I want a co-director,” Zukaitis says. She and co-director Sheila Nelson led the school for 14 years. They had big slippers to fill. Roche had taken the OAB from a small ballet company to a well-respected academy with a separate performing company.

Zukaitis stepped into the role grace-fully and stretched the organization even further. A big part of the job, one which was important to Zukaitis as well as the school, was examinations.

The OAB is the only school in Omaha which uses the rigorous Imperial Society of Teacher of Dancing qualifications. Zukaitis holds an associate diploma through the ISTD and brought in examiners each year to keep the school ISTD qualified.

Most importantly, the school became an environment where people wanted to bring their children to learn.

Roddy believes Zukaitis herself was one of the big factors in this.

“I think she’s one of the best ballet teach-ers in town, and she’s one of the nicest people I know. She’s been an incredible friend and colleague.”

He would know. The two met when he was in high school attending advanced ballet classes at Creighton.

“She uses her knowledge and talents in the best way possible to get her technique across to all ages of people from very young to adults,” he says. “Her musicality is excel-lent, beyond reproach.”

He considers Zukaitis herself one of his very good friends, and that means a lot to her.

“I used to say when I was younger I wanted to grow up and work with my best friends, and that’s really what I’ve done,” Zukaitis says. “I love the people I work with, and I have been very fortunate to have worked with them to build the dance community in Omaha.”

This past year, Zukaitis stepped down as OAB director to be with her family. Her daughters are all pursuing performing arts careers while Jack is training to be a firefighter.

“I hope they can make a living doing what they love,” Zukaitis says.

They should succeed. After all, they have a successful role model.


Sara Wolfson


60PLUS FEATUREby judy horan | photography by bill sitzmann

GERIATRIC NURSES older adults count on those who

understand their health concerns

SOME PEOPLE JUST DON’T get it when it comes to the health of older adults. Many believe that elderly people are always tired. But that’s

a myth. “It’s also not true that an older person doesn’t have

a brain that works as well,” says Sara Wolfson, geriat-ric nurse practitioner for the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) Home Instead Center for Successful Aging.

Myths such as these lead to ageism that can affect how older adults are treated (or under treated) for illnesses.

A geriatric nurse can sort it out. This registered nurse specialist has the skills to recognize what’s normal for older adults versus what’s abnormal.

“We are really focused on looking at the process of aging and how we can help older adults maintain their health and prevent health problems as they age. What is normal at age 80 might not be normal for 40 or 50,” says Dr. Beth Culross, an R.N. with a Ph.D. in gerontology. She teaches undergraduate gerontol-ogy at the UNMC College of Nursing in Omaha.

Geriatric nurses often function as case managers who help patients live with chronic illnesses, giving them a greater chance of staying independent and active. >


< “With case management, there are a lot of phone calls, checking on them, answering questions about medication, seeing how a visit to the ER went,” Wolfson explains.

She says it’s important to keep older adults out of hospitals. “Being in the hos-pital weakens people. It takes longer to recover. Some get confused. Older people have less reserve when they get sick.”

Geriatric nurses can be found working in hospitals, clinics, physicians’ offices, long-term care facilities—and in patients’ homes.

Senior Assist, a home-visit program for patients ages 65 and older whose primary care physician is with Nebraska Medicine, is available at no cost through the Home Instead Center for Successful Aging. Home visits give the nurse a look at the person’s living environment, and consequently gives them a clue to what is going on with their physical and mental health.

“One nurse went to the home of a patient who was constantly coming here because of congestion and found she wasn’t using her nebulizer,” says Wolfson. “Home visits give a heads-up if someone is having a problem.”

UNMC’s Home Instead Center for Successful Aging offers seniors a wellness center, outpatient clinic, assessment, and education in topics as diverse as fall pre-vention, nutrition, arthritis, and tai chi. Nurses provide education as mandated by Medicare—information about medications, like blood thinners, or about general health and nutrition, like cutting back on sodium.

“We’re a center for people who are aging well and people who have a lot of chronic illnesses that need to be managed,” Wolfson says. “We take walk-in patients. They might have a cold, feel dizzy or tired.”

The center also provides dementia evalu-ation and diagnosis.

“We wouldn’t diagnose dementia on the fact that their memory is bad. It’s based on function. Are they still independent? Taking medications? Or are they not bathing? Are their clothes tattered?” says Wolfson, who points out that there are other geriatric clinics available in the area.

Dr.Beth Culross

“We’re a center for people who are aging well and people who have a lot of chronic illnesses that need

to be managed.” -Sara Wolfson

60PLUS FEATURE

As people live longer and the number of people over age 65 increases, more nurses specializing in geriatrics are needed.

By 2030, one in five adults—88 million people—will be 65 or older, according to the U.S. Census. About 10,000 adults turn 65 every day.

“Most of the hospitals in the Omaha area have started recognizing this,” Culross says. “These hospitals have special designations around the need for care for older adults.”

There is a shortage of nurses in general and—because the number of aging adults is increasing—there is especially a need for certified geriatric nurses.

Almost half of all patients admitted to hospitals are over 65, but only 1 percent of registered nurses and 3 percent of advanced practice registered nurses are certified in geriatrics, reports the American Geriatric Society.

Adults over 65 account for nearly 26 per-cent of all physician visits, 47 percent of all hospital stays, 34 percent of all prescrip-tions, 34 percent of all physical therapy patients, and 90 percent of all nursing home stays, according to the Eldercare Workforce Alliance.

By 2030, 7.7 million people will have Alzheimer’s disease, up from 4.9 million in 2007.

“The fastest growing segment of the pop-ulation in the United States are people 85 and over,” Culross says.

Recognizing what’s normal and what’s not for an aging adult is important for a geriatric nurse. So is listening. Allowing patients to talk about their experiences and life stories tells where they are now and how she can help, says Culross.

“I learn as much from my patients as they do from me. My husband tells me I’m really good at it because I like to talk.”


by ryan borchers | photography by bill sitzmann

60PLUS FEATURE


JACK “HAMBONE” HAMILTON an omaha constant

JACK “HAMBONE” HAMILTON, 79, has been around the country and world, but Omaha remains a constant in his life.

He grew up in the projects at 20th and Clark streets and attended Omaha Central High School, where he played football, base-ball, and basketball. He graduated in 1955.

Soon after, he enlisted in the Marine Corps.“They taught you a lot,” he says. “First

thing you gotta do: get up in the morning and make my bed. That’s what they taught me.”

He also picked up a pastime he enjoys to this day—cigar smoking.

“Never smoked a cigarette,” he says. His favorite brand? “Cheapest.”

He stayed in the Marines until 1958. He enjoyed being overseas, but didn’t like the constant inspections and “spit and polish” of the military, so he came back to Omaha and worked in construction for a while. Then he went to barber school.

He remained active in sports, and met “Big Fred” Bruning playing basketball at the YMCA downtown. Because of their friendship, Jack became the original bar-tender at Big Fred’s Pizza Garden when it opened in 1969.

“I would barber during the day and work the bar at night,” he says.

Hamilton moved to Palm Springs, California, in the early 1990s and worked at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage as a “starter” on the golf course (some-one who makes sure golfers start their rounds on time) and as a “ranger” (someone who makes sure rounds move along at a reasonable pace). He also lived in the Phoenix area for 23 years and worked for golf courses there.

It was a natural occupation for him. “He’s golfed his whole life,” says Hamilton’s

daughter, Tricia Hamilton-Marsh, 52. He even became good friends with PGA member Fred Couples, who golfed at Mission Hills when Hamilton worked there. >


60PLUS FEATURE

< But in something of an odd inversion of the usual retirement narrative, he moved back to Omaha. Hamilton said he wanted to be closer to his daughters, though he also moved back because of the weather.

“I used to love the heat,” he says about the temperature in Arizona. “I hated it the last four years. I just couldn’t take it. I left [Omaha] because of the cold.”

Another of Hamilton’s constants is sports. He’s a self-professed fan of just about all sports and his favorite teams are University of Connecticut women’s basketball, Duke men’s basketball and the Arizona Cardinals.

Hamilton’s true constant, his rock, is his family. He has three daughters—Tricia, Christine Hamilton, 53, and Mary Alexander, 50. His wife, Nancy, and his son, John, are deceased. Jack also has eight grandchildren and his first great-grandchild is due in April.

He also loves a pastime he picked up just two years ago: making model airplanes out of empty beer and soda cans. Hamilton saw one hanging in the garage of a mechanic he knew and liked it.

“Well, you just get a beer can and start cutting,” he says. “And then you gotta glue ’em, gotta measure everything.”

He has sold about 60 of them—at Bud Olson’s bar and at craft fairs; however, Tricia says he usually ends up giving them away.

After a life so long lived and with so many adventures, Hamilton has some pretty simple advice:

“Just to eat right, keep exercising,” he says.


Thank you for reading Sixty-Plus.

This stand-alone magazine is also featured

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60PLUS FEATUREby greg jerrett | photography by bill sitzmann

IN OUR UNGILDED AGE of convenient, casual, ironic dress sense, one is less apt to see men of employable age in suits on a work day than in t-shirts with rainbow-spouting unicorns.

Formal hats disappeared shortly before the moon landing and have regained little ground since. Luckily, folks with vision keep the art of hat-making alive, hip, and happening as haute couture. Thanks, Paris!

Meanwhile, 4,479 miles from the French capital, nestled in the restful hamlet of Springfield, Nebraska (population 1,615), lies a sweet little emporium called Springfield Artworks. Full to bursting with decades of art, it is home to Margie Trembley Chapeaux.

Trembley designs hats you will find on the runways in high places. They are haute, haute, haute right now as couture goes. How haute? Haute couture enough for invitations to one of the best places an all-American hatmaker from Omaha via Arkansas can be: Louisville and the pageantry of the Kentucky Derby.

“The Kentucky Derby has a hat fashion contest every year the day before the Derby itself in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness,” says Trembley, who competed in 2014 against 200 other con-testants in front of celebrity judges Carson Kressley of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and Simon Baker of The Mentalist. >

MARGIE TREMBLEY hatmaker remembers golden age of chapeaux


< “Miss America introduced everybody,” Trembley says wistfully, but humorously, in her slight Arkansas drawl about that exhilarat-ing day. “There were 200 of us...I didn’t win a thing.”

Undeterred and in true Omaha fashion, Trembley made a quick study of the scene and came up with a clever plan to outfox future competition.

“Since I didn’t win anything and the winners were all young, tall, skinny, gorgeous...I decided I needed ‘young, tall, skinny, gorgeous.’”

Enlisting the help of a young, tall, skinny, gorgeous model from Nashville, Trembley took a second shot at victory at the 2015 contest.

“So [the model] came from Nashville and she wore this hat,” Trembley says, building expecta-tions. “And we still didn’t win. But we’re walk-ing around the paddock area with the hat on and we get approached by this lady who asked if she could take a picture and so sure, I said, ‘Who are you?’ and she said, ‘I’m with Vogue.’”

Let that digest a moment. The hat made the front page of vogue.com

and has been used in advertising the coming

Derby. Trembley was interviewed by ABC Sports and even caught the attention of the local bourgeoisie.

“I’ve been invited to have hats at a high-end store in Louisville called Rodes for Him and Her during Kentucky Derby Week,” says Trembley. That’s not bad for a very modern milliner who began working with hats only a few years ago.

“I’ve been making hats between four and five years. I was a felter prior to making hats, though, and I’ve been an artist for years,” says Trembley, whose secret is that she never stopped learning.

She followed her passions and interests where they led: felting, glass-etching, silk painting, metal-smithing, pottery, glass bead-making, and glass fusing, all of which contribute to her individual style. It all goes back into the hats.

“I learned some really, really good techniques and I’m sticking with it.”

“I learned some really, really good techniques and I’m sticking with it.”

-Margie Trembley


60PLUS FEATURE

KNOW YOUR BLOOD SUGAR LEVELS

prediabetes is your early warning sign

DIABETES RUNS IN JOHN Moran’s family. His mother had diabetes and so did his two sisters. At age 63, Moran knew that

if he didn’t take action, diabetes would also be knocking on his door.

He was almost too late. At his last doc-tor’s appointment, about a year ago, his blood sugars had crept up to prediabetic levels (fast-ing blood glucose of 100-125 mg/dl), meaning one’s blood sugar level is higher than normal, but not high enough to meet the diagnosis of diabetes.

It is estimated that approximately one-third of Americans have prediabetes, and 90 percent of these people don’t know it, says Cyrus DeSouza, M.D., an endocrinologist at Nebraska Medicine.

Studies have revealed that most people with prediabetes will develop Type 2 diabetes within 10 years unless they lose weight and exercise. Prediabetes is usually asymptomatic and hence the problem remains undetected until diabetes symptoms develop.

“That’s why everyone should be screened for diabetes at age 45,” says Dr. DeSouza. If you

have risk factors such as family history, high blood pressure, obesity, or sedentary lifestyle, or you are an ethnic minority, you should be screened at an earlier age at the discretion of your physician and at least every three years thereafter.

Eating a healthy diet and exercising are the two most important things you can do to prevent diabetes. “In overweight or predia-betic individuals, losing seven percent of your body weight can reduce your risk of developing diabetes by 60 percent,” says Dr. DeSouza. “You should also work toward exercising five days a week for 30 minutes or more, doing a combination of light aerobics and strength training.”

Nessie Ferguson, a dietitian at Nebraska Medicine, recommends using the MyPlate method to fill your plate. (Visit choosemyplate.gov for more details.) This includes making one-half of your plate non-starchy vegetables and fruits, one-fourth of your plate whole grains, and the last one-fourth lean protein. Avoid sugary drinks like sodas and juices. “This will help you choose the right foods

and manage your portion sizes,” she says. Moran says he knew he needed to lose

weight but he needed help so he joined a weight loss program at Nebraska Medicine. By the end of a year, he had lost 30 pounds, his blood sugar levels were back to normal, his blood pressure had dropped, and his cholesterol level was back in check.

“I was eating the wrong foods, skipping meals, leaving out breakfast, and grabbing fast food on the go,” says Moran. “Now I eat three meals with a focus on protein, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. I feel so much healthier.”

Diabetes is one of the fastest growing medical conditions in the country, effecting approximately one quarter of the population. Historically, it is more prevalent with people in their 50s and 60s, but now it’s starting to develop in children and young adults due to increasing obesity and lack of exercise, accord-ing to Dr. DeSouza. It’s a disease we all need to be more vigilant about.


by susan meyers

60PLUS HEALTH

“You should work toward exercising five days a week

for 30 minutes or more, doing a combination of light aerobics

and strength training.” -Cyrus DeSouza, M.D.

OMAHA’S LOST RELIGIOUS BUILDINGS a look back at deconstructed, deconsecrated holy places

by max sparber | photography contributed by douglas county historical society

60PLUS HISTORY

Photo provided by Douglas County Historical Society. Temple Israel Omaha, NE


DESPITE OMAHA’S DESERVED EARLY reputation as a city of crime and vice, it was also a city with a thriving religious

community. Or, more properly, a variety of religious communities, as Omaha has always been home to practitioners of many faiths.

We can go all the way back to 1854 to find the first sermon preached in Omaha, predat-ing the building of churches: It was a quarry owner named Peter Cooper, a Methodist who gathered fellow Methodists from Council Bluffs for services. In pioneer days, small towns and new cities often didn’t have perma-nent clergy, and the Methodist and Episcopal churches responded by sending out itinerant ministers, often meeting in private houses. This practice was called “circuit riding,” and circuit riders added Omaha to their routes within six months of Cooper’s sermon.

Here is a look at some of Omaha’s past churches and other places of religious wor-ship. Some have closed, while others have been repurposed.

EMMANUEL LUTHERAN CHURCH: Possibly the first Lutheran congregation west of the Missouri, Emanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church was built in 1858. The church was built with generous donations and encouragement from a specific parishioner, Augustus Kountze, who was then starting to have success in the banking industry. The congregation lives on at 2650 Farnam St. in a new structure built in 1906, now called Kountze Memorial Lutheran Church.

ST. MARY EASTERN ORTHODOX CHURCH: Starting in the 1930s, Omaha became home to a large number of Syrian/Lebanese-American Christian Orthodox families. The congregation is an excellent example of a longstanding tradition in religion: Repurposing existing churches or temples. In

1957, the congregation of St. Mary purchased the former Lutheran Memorial Church and rectory on 52nd and Seward streets. They used this for years, until the congre-gation outgrew the space, and then repur-posed another church in 1977: Countryside Briardale United Church of Christ on Pacific Street. And, in fact, the location is occupied by another church previously used by another congregation: the Living Faith Assembly of God Church on Boyd Street, purchased in 1985.

ST. MARY CATHOLIC CHURCH:There was an attempt to build a Catholic church in Omaha in 1855, but the priest who instigated it, The Rev. William Emonds, was called away and the project was abandoned. In 1856, however, the church received a donation of two lots on Eighth and Howard streets, from the Nebraska and Iowa Ferry Co., and there they built a small church called St. Mary, largely with the support of Omaha’s Irish population. The church was converted into a parochial school when St. Philomena church was built in 1867, and served several additional purposes before being torn down around 1882.

TEMPLE ISRAEL: While the congregation of Temple Israel now has a synagogue on Sterling Ridge Drive in Omaha, they built their first house of wor-ship–and the first synagogue in Nebraska–back in 1871. The first location was at 23rd and Harney streets, and the congregation moved to a new location at 29th and Jackson streets in 1908.

1. FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCH.FOUNDED 1890. CLOSED THIS YEAR DUE TO FINANCIAL TROUBLES.

2. BLESSED SACRAMENT CHURCH.FOUNDED 1919. CLOSED IN 2014 TO MERGE WITH ST. PHILIP NERI PARISH.

3. ST. PATRICK CHURCH. FOUNDED 1883. CLOSED IN 2014 TO MERGE WITH ST. FRANCES CABRINI PARISH.

4. TEMPLE ISRAEL. FOUNDED 1871, BUILT CASS STREET LOCATION IN 1951. MOVED TO NEW BUILDING IN 2013; OLD BUILDING RECENTLY PURCHASED BY OMAHA CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC.

5. ST. RICHARD CATHOLIC CHURCH. ESTABLISHED 1961. CLOSED IN 2009 DUE TO DECLINE IN PARISHIONERS.

RECENT CHURCH AND SYNAGOGUE

CLOSINGS, OMAHA



60PLUS FACESby greg jerrett | photography by bill sitzmann


HOPELESSLY DEVOTED suicidologist john erickson

AT 63, JOHN ERICKSON looks like he could still put a sleeper hold on a steer. If possess-

ing the intimidating presence of a Midwestern hit man is a hurdle to getting acquainted with someone, it is a blissfully low one.

“I admit it is a barrier, looking like a bouncer or a cleaner, that kind of thing,” Erickson says, musing on the subject of first impressions at Caffeine Dreams where he’s a fixture, even lending his mug to a Joshua Foo photo exhibit on faces.

Tough though he may be, Erickson is also a healer, a licensed therapist trained in suicidology. He “tends the garden of the mind” at Bergan as well as doing risk assessments in “jail settings.”

In this stressful, post-9/11 world, our understanding of brain function has increased dramatically.

Much of that time Erickson has been on the front lines. One might expect a suicidologist to be morbid, but nothing is further from the truth.

“We have much greater under-standing of brain function today and it’s well established that when our system gets stressed, we can reach a tipping point,” says Erickson. “And we live in very stressful times.”

From contentious politics to the carnival of souls that is Facebook, stress is omnipresent.

“Studies have been done of chil-dren growing up in poverty, where their neurological systems show signs of post-traumatic stress disorder,” says Erickson, whose wife is a fifth grade teacher.

“She teaches in a school with a lot of poverty, and it does have an effect. It takes a compassionate response based on understanding and respect. Walk a mile in someone’s shoes before you judge or criticize them.”

Police and medics are called for mental illness related welfare checks that can end tragically, but Erickson believes mental illness first aid train-ing has been paying off in Omaha.

“Credit to the Omaha Police Department for handling things. A lot of times, they have no idea what they’re going to walk into or what the response is going to be,” Erickson says. “I’ve just recently had police respond to a patient of mine who was distressed and they handled it exceptionally well. There are more and more police officers understand-ing mental illness.”

Training mentally ill patients to call attention to their psychiatric

conditions during crisis helps fore-stall tragedy, says Erickson, who is not just an advocate for others, but himself as well.

“There are different levels of mental illness. It is very common. I have attention deficit disorder. It’s a lifelong condition,” Erickson says. “We all have a tipping point…and as the mind goes, so goes the body. Some have neurological systems that are over-reactive or under-reactive to stress. Anytime we feel threatened—physically, socially, intellectually, or emotionally. There is a segment of the population with mental illness that just has a very difficult time handling stress.”

Helping others can cause stress as well. John recently came off medi-cal leave for compassion fatigue. Insurance issues left him feeling “like he was driving down a winding road with faulty brakes.” Knowing that feeling personally is one reason John has trained in suicidology.

“Suicide is the heart attack of mental illness,” John says about why he keeps going. “I’ve had an oppor-tunity to have patients who are more than patients; they’re friends. I care about them. It doesn’t always work out, but it does have an effect.”

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