People are overworked and underpaid in today’s society. A person will go to work while they are sick, right after an important person in their life passes away, and even after they give birth to a child. People go back to work after all these things because they do not want to get fired, get behind on their work, or have to use up sick days. This can cause illnesses to spread by bringing them in, new moms to become depressed, and a disconnect with coworkers and clients. In order to have a healthy work place, both mentally and physically, self-care has to be a priority. Advocates that work with victims of any violence especially have to be mindful of taking care of themselves. Hearing stories of trauma everyday can be a taxing job for even the most trained advocates. Advocates have a tendency to feel burnt out because of not implicating self-care, in and out of the office. At Palomar, there is a “Zen Room” for the employees to decompress after having hard conversations with their clients. Palomar also has therapy dogs that stop by the offices to give the clients and the employees some much needed stress relief. There is something about animals that has a calming effect on almost all people.
Elizabeth Stoverink is an animal advocate from the Oklahoma Humane Society that is housed in Palomar. She was a great person to interview because of her unique perspective since she works with animals in an advocate role. Elizabeth has the important job of making sure that clients get the peace of mind knowing their pets are safe from their abusers. There is a high rate of perpetrators that will threaten and/or harm their victims animals in order to control or manipulate them into staying. Many victims will stay in a dangerous situation because of fearing for their pets safety. Giving clients that come into Palomar a choice of agencies to get services from will make them feel like they are finally in control of something.
Clients being able to talk to Elizabeth about making sure their pets are safe can come with feelings of relief, but sometimes it is stressful for Elizabeth.
Elizabeth opened up about the stressors of being an animal advocate. Of course there is a need for funding in every area of advocacy, but especially for animal advocacy. Taking on these furry clients racks up bills. The fact that the animal advocacy program is so new means less people know about it. People not knowing about this program means there are less donors than if it was a program that was well known. This leads into an additional stressor, a lack of veterinary resources. These two stressors go hand in hand with each other. Many vets work with their own clients in order to make sure the pets are taken care of efficiently. Elizabeth says she sees around 30-40 clients with pets a month. Around 10 of those clients are new, which means they have to go through a vet to get looked at. That is a lot of money. Elizabeth does a great job caring for these pets and their owners, but it takes more than just her. She goes out of her way to pick pets up from homes with perpetrators, which puts her at risk occasionally. Just think about the amount of clients one advocate has, and the stress that comes with. Think about the fact that Elizabeth has furry clients that cannot tell her what is wrong, and how she can help them get better after potentially being abused as well. The amount of stress that alone entails is huge!
The justice system is a major stressor for advocates and their clients. It is called the criminal justice system for a reason, not the victim justice system. One plus about Oklahoma is that it allows victims to add their pets to Victim Protective Orders. This is a huge deal since Oklahoma is just now adding strangulation in domestic violence to the list of violent crimes.
Victims do not always have the best experience with law enforcement, which sometimes makes them hesitant to talk to advocates because they have a fear of getting people in trouble or not being believed. When the clients know that the advocates are there to help them and their pets, then life seems a little less lonely.
Elizabeth talked about her own ways of decompressing after working with clients to get the pets good foster homes or taken to a safer place, and also ways to make her clients more calm after talking about things that might trigger them. First thing she said was that she enjoys listening to a true crime podcast. The second thing she enjoys doing is embroidering. These are thongs she uses to bring her stress levels down. Elizabeth helps clients by using grounding techniques, and also gives them grounding technique instructions to take home with them so they have it available to use whenever they need it. She has insight others might not have when it comes to pets and stress. On one hand, pets can be a stressor for her if they are hurt and frantic. This can cause stress for both her and the animal. On the other hand, she loves animals so much. Elizabeth talked about the positive effect the animals she brings into the office have on the staff at Palomar. She said,”Pets provide such love and loyalty, that most people will become relaxed upon loving on them!”
They are on planes, buses, boats, in cars, at schools, and even at work. Who is they? They are therapy animals, emotional support animals, and service animals. These animals are not just dogs. There was a study done by a group of researchers over animals decompressing stress in children. The study shows that animals can decrease distress in children caused by procedures in health care settings. If animals are able to do this, then it is possible for them to help advocates and victims.
Play therapy with animals for children has been a significantly positive experience for everyone involved. Dogs are specifically becoming so advanced in the training they receive in order to work with people in any setting. Who would have thought that dogs could be trauma-informed? Many social workers, therapists, and health care workers use the assistance of animals to help their clients feel more comfortable.
Christina Risley-Curtiss said in her study that,” 62 percent of U.S. households report having a companion animal.” That is over half of the households in the United States. If animals are not working to help combat stress in everyday life for individuals, then why do so many households have them? There is so much research on the animal-human companionship, but not so much on the results social workers have seen with the clients that have these animals. Sure there might be some cons to providing animals in court, and therapy sessions. Just like humans, animals are unpredictable. People can train these animals to do their job for years, but the animal can still make mistakes like humans do while working. There are some people that are allergic to some animals which could cause a disturbance in closed in room used for therapy where an animal has been assisting in. Some clients may become aggressive towards animals when they are triggered by certain things. Also, some people are not pet people, which is okay. That is why it is so important to make sure clients get to make their choices. Victims of violence may feel relieved when an animal alerts to their stress, something that may not be the easiest to spot by an advocate since everyone has different reactions.
