The grant funding was used to include training for Region Ten staff in AAT techniques by the Center for Human-Animal Interactions at Virginia Commonwealth University, training for the dogs to meet certification requirements and evaluations of therapy dog teams through Therapy Dogs International (TDI). Although this program required a minimal financial investment, the benefits to improving mental health and quality of life to consumers has already been observed to greatly outweigh any incurred costs

Because the majority of Region Ten consumers are mentally ill adults, we have limited our one-year pilot to this population. Since February, we have trained and certified six therapy dogs. We plan to demonstrate positive results in order to expand the program to include services for children and intellectually delayed individuals. To evaluate the effectiveness of the one-year pilot program, we are currently collecting consumer-related outcome data by using surveys based on the Chima project (Urichuck & Anderson (2003)), and collecting subjective documentation from direct observations.

AAT is an evidenced-based practice, with a growing interest in the use of animals in the counseling process, promoting improvement in human physical, social, emotional and cognitive functioning. Research shows participation of an animal in the therapeutic process motivates clients to participate in treatment (Chandler, 2005), increases rapport within the client-counselor relationship, reduces stress of therapy, and allows for quicker and greater recovery (Odendaal, 2000). Since beginning the program in February, we have already observed that animals can provide healing benefits by creating a sense of safety for traumatized, defensive, or detached consumers as well as promote socialization, mental stimulation and empathy, and reducing isolation and loneliness. Therapy dogs are especially helpful as part of a crisis intervention by offering a sense of normalcy to a very abnormal situation (Chandler, 2005) and a recently certified therapy dog at Region Ten is currently being used in our emergency services department. Over the past eight months, our AAT program has been favorably featured in the news media including Charlottesville NBC 29 news and Charlottesville Daily Progress.

Region Ten Community Services Board is part of a statewide network of 40 Community Services Boards in Virginia. We are a 501(3) nonprofit organization that provides mental health, intellectual disability and substance abuse services, striving to improve the quality of lives of the people we serve by offering innovative treatment methods. Region Ten serves almost 6,000 consumers and has nearly 600 employees.

Objectives:

1) To introduce and apply the Family Systems Illness Model (Rolland, 1994) to contemporary veterinary practice and frame the family – not the patient – as the “unit of care.”

2) To explore the effects of animal illness on family coping, communication, and adaptation.

3) To present veterinary social workers as “ecosystems consultants” on the veterinary team, and explain how to utilize these professionals most effectively.

4) To review concrete, phase-based tools for improving communication, enhancing collaboration, and building resilience with patients’ families.

*Note: if someone else is giving a workshop on on-site animal housing at DV shelters, I can tailor this workshop to focus on off-site models—Allie Phillips and I used this system at this year’s NCADV conference to present a two-part workshop series.

-Clients who return to the abuser: what happens to the animal?

-Other situations where we may not feel the animal is returning to ideal conditions: clients who cannot afford proper animal care, clients whose children have demonstrated cruelty, etc.

-Clients who refuse spay/neuter or other basic veterinary care

-When the client has also harmed the animal

-Reporting issues: the program’s role or lack thereof

-What happens when the client’s ownership of the animal is in question?

-Should we place limits on repeat use of services? What if she comes back with more animals next time?

-How do we write program policies that protect us without disempowering clients?

-Are safe haven programs the “final solution” when it comes to providing assistance with animals in domestic violence situations, or is some responsibility shared with the DV service system and/or with the client?

-Other situations that service providers (or those interested in providing this service) may bring to the table

Ultimately, discussion participants will be guided in considering the above questions within the context of ethical obligations to both human and animal clients, and in addressing the fundamental question of “What constituency do I serve: humans, animals, or both?” with respect to both personal allegiances and program/agency identity.

The survey objectives included: measuring the existence of “formalized” policies/practices in place to handle terminally ill patients and euthanasia both medically and emotionally with pet owners and staff; measuring the number of times a clinic typically faces these situations; measuring awareness of the term “compassion fatigue” and use of any coping tools or strategies for the veterinarian and clinic staff; and accessing the level of concern about compassion fatigue. Combined with the presenter’s years of research and experience in veterinary practice and animal care, and compassion fatigue in particular, this presentation will wrap in-the-trenches concepts around numbers to provide an enlightening glimpse at the inner workings of the emotional aspects of animal caregiving in veterinary medicine.

The majority of individuals act against actions and behaviors they regard as unjust or immoral even though their actions many incur heavy personal costs. However, professionals responding to animal cruelty and human violence have noted that inhumane conduct is a growing human problem at both individual and collective levels.

This presentation will focus on the mechanisms by which people choose to behave humanely or inhumanely. By understanding those internal and external psychological and social forces that govern an individual's conduct and how these mechanisms function in the perpetration of cruelty practitioners can develop interventions that accentuate humane personal standards. The session will engage practitioners in the creation of client centered processes that enable people to do good things as well as refrain from doing bad things.

Compassion fatigue can affect anyone in the role of healer, helper, or rescuer.As Hilfiker (1985) describes it: “All of us who attempt to heal the wounds of others will ourselves be wounded; it is, after all, inherent in the relationship.”For a number of reasons, those within the veterinary profession – including social workers – are especially prone to developing compassion fatigue. Profoundly significant, compassion fatigue is recognized as “the greatest threat to personal, professional and financial success among those who truly provide compassionate care.”

Compassion fatigue can be described as “the natural consequent behaviors and emotions resulting from knowing about a traumatizing event experienced by a significant other – the stress resulting from helping or wanting to help a traumatized or suffering person.” It emerges as a natural consequence of caring and, accordingly, is not necessarily a problem but more a natural by-product. Defining it by necessary variables, compassion fatigue necessitates a caregiving relationship within which there is an exchange of empathy, emotions, and information between the caregiver and client, along with a strong desire on the part of the caregiver to help alleviate the client’s suffering and pain.

Compassion fatigue cannot be clearly differentiated from other environmental stressors. From a systems perspective, compassion fatigue has been conceptualized as the convergence of primary traumatic stress, secondary traumatic stress, and cumulative stress/burnout. An interactive or synergistic effect among these three has been discerned, wherein the experience of symptoms from any one appears to diminish resiliency and lower thresholds for the adverse impact of the other two. Compassion fatigue is often mistaken as burnout. Despite the recognition of compassion fatigue as a form of professional burnout, the two conditions are, in fact, uniquely different, despite often appearing to feel the same. Since the two have uniquely different causes and paths to recovery, it is vital that they be clearly understood and differentiated.

Although symptoms of compassion fatigue may be mild and considered the result of a stressful day, they can also be severe, additive, and potentially devastating, involving a cascade of adverse physiological, psychological, and interpersonal consequences. Compassion fatigue affects people personally and professionally, impacting both individuals and organizations. It can affect physical and mental health, professional competence and success, and vocational direction and development. It can even spread “as a contagion” to pan-systemically influence organizational welfare.

Intervention in the form of professional help is important. Prevention is even better. Beyond four protective qualities which enhance resilience, there are a number of proactive steps and strategies that can be employed to manage the consequences of compassion fatigue.

(references removed to accommodate length limitations)