To celebrate Mental Health Month this May, the Tri-State K-9 Crisis Response Team returned to Oaks Integrated Care for a 2nd year to teach us about their therapy dogs and the different services they provide! The therapy dogs serve children, families, neighborhoods and communities that are in crisis in an effort to provide comfort, stress relief, emotional support and crisis intervention services. Teams will comfort victims of trauma, disaster, or violence fostering resilience and self-efficacy.
When asked about the process of becoming a handler/dog team on the crisis response team explained, “Each dog must have been a therapy dog for at least a year. The dog and handler need to have basic obedience skills, manners and be able to pass the certification test. The testing process is an evaluation of both the Handler and Dog.”
The organization currently consists of 35 handler/canine teams which conducted over 7,000 visitations in the last year to various locations such as homeless shelters, hospitals, universities, libraries, nursing homes and even flew to Florida after the Pulse Nightclub shooting. This year they hope to meet the goal of 10,000 face to face unduplicated visitations!
Some of the benefits of therapy pets for mental health include the reduction of loneliness, decreasing feelings of isolation and alienation, provide comfort, decrease anxiety and create motivation for recovery. Their sweet demeanors and unconditional love have a therapeutic benefit to those who face difficult health challenges. Those diagnosed with a range of health issues such as depression, bipolar disorder, autism, ADHD, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and even Alzheimer’s disease have benefited from their interaction with therapy pets.
Thank you Tri-State K-9 Crisis Response Team for visiting and teaching us about the wonderful services you provide! To learn more about the organization visit: www.tri-statecanineresponse.org
At Oaks Integrated Care our role remains not just to provide mental health services but to bring awareness to the mental health issues that affect us all at some point in our lives. To learn more about our services, visit https://oaksintcare.org/services/ or call our Access Center 1-800-963-3377.
