Supportive and Passionate VolunteerCommunity Involvement
↓
Boulder Chevra Kadisha – Holy Society for the Dead
Boulder Chevra Kadisha was established in 1996 to continue the ancient Jewish traditions of honoring the dead and comforting the mourner.
Andrea serves the end-of-life needs for the Boulder County Jewish community, for members of congregations and the unaffiliated as a dedicated volunteer who performs the traditional Jewish rituals of tahara and shmira, preparing individuals for burial. This service is one of chesed shel emet (ultimate kindness) to accompany and care for the deceased.
Keep Olim Emotional Support Line - Liaison
Andrea volunteers as a liaison for the Emotional Support and Suicide Prevention Line based in Israel, playing a vital role in connecting individuals in crisis with the help they need. She helps coordinate communication between volunteers and leadership, ensuring that support services run smoothly and efficiently. Through her dedication, Andrea contributes to creating a compassionate, responsive network that offers hope, understanding, and immediate assistance to those facing difficult moments.
Keep Olim Emotional Support Line - Crisis Line Volunteer 24/7
Emotional Support and Suicide Prevention based in Israel. Keep Olim empowers and unites all Olim, and provides them with the crucial assistance necessary for them to stay in Israel. We are the voice of all Olim. Our mental health services are provided in the Olim’s native languages and we never deny assistance to anyone who cannot afford to pay. With more support that will allow us to expand our programming, we aim to keep more Olim in Israel and inspire others to make Aliyah. KeepOlim is making a lasting impact on our Olim community by changing and saving lives every day.
Tikva Emotional Support Line - Admin Professional
Andrea provides compassionate emotional support to those who need immediate help as a team member and volunteer of Tikva.
She serves as an administrative professional in two roles, providing mentoring in support of new volunteers and providing opportunities to shadow, in addition to monitoring urgent concerns such as immediate issues with suicidal emergencies, directly contacting authorities, and ensuring that services are running smoothly with the appropriate support person.
Suicide Prevention – Suicide Studies / Publications
An advanced program designed for individuals committed to reaching their highest potential and mastering all aspects of their lives. It incorporates advanced coaching for extraordinary results.
Suicide prevention is a heartfelt purpose of Andrea's. She is committed to helping people understand that it is not their biological life they want to end, it is their suffering. when one is feeling suicidal, they might be feeling lost and that it might be easier if they were dead. What this usually means for people is that they want to end their suffering, not their biological life.
By observing interventions in her studies and working with several psychiatrists and psychologists, she has witnessed deep mindset shifts in research study participants, and it was evident that people can find hope again by finding therapeutic and tangible ways out of their suffering.
They cannot do this work alone and need a qualified professional. Being a professional who is not afraid to hold space for someone’s darkness is the key because it takes the taboo of suicidal thoughts away. We openly talked about the emotions and desire to end one’s life, which helps to address one’s shame, fear, and the human experience.
Andrea's role was doing the intake for 15- to 24-year-olds who had a recent, but unsuccessful, suicide attempt. She would meet with them and ask them specific questions about their history of attempting to commit suicide, including other attempts. Andrea is a co-author on many publications for addiction studies and suicide research, and primary on the qualitative study.
Manuscripts and Publications
Srebnik, D., Sugar, A.M., Coblentz, P., McDonell, M., Angelo, F., Ries, R., & Roll, J. (2013). Acceptability of contingency management among clinicians and clients within a co-occuring mental health and substance use treatment program. The American Journal on Addictions, 22(5), 432-436. dot: 10.1111/j.1521-0391.2013.00333.x
McDonell, M.G., Angelo, F., Sugar, A.M., Rainey, C., Srebnik, D., Roll, J, Short, R., & Ries, R. (2010). A pilot study of the accuracy of onsite immunoassay urinalysis of illicit drug use in seriously mentally ill outpatients. The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 37(2), 137-140.
McDonell, M.G., Srebnik, D., Angelo, F., Sugar, A.M., Rainey, C., Howell, D., Roll, J, Short, R., & Ries, R. (2010). Evaluation of Ethyl Glucuronide Immunoassay Urinalysis in 5 Alcohol Dependent Outpatients. The American Journal on Addictions, 20(5), 482-484. doi:10.1111/ j.1521-0391.2011.00157.x
McDonell, M.G., Srebnik, D., Angelo, F., McPherson, S, Lowe, J.M., Sugar, A.M., Short, R.A., Roll, J.M., Ries, R.K. (2013) Randomized controlled trial of contingency management for stimulant use in community mental health patients with serious mental illness. The American Journal on Psychiatry, 170(1), 94-101.
"Andrea changed my life and possibly saved it. She is amazing as a grief therapist, and I had tried 3 before her who didn't make me feel heard. I feel so thankful that I found her before giving up because she helped me find my new normal, and I would recommend her to anyone dealing with death or the aftermath."