People from all backgrounds enjoy the companionship and mental health benefits of animals, but people who are placed-at-risk—those experiencing poverty or systemic discrimination, who are often at a higher risk of dealing with past traumas—can face barriers in caring for their pets. Thisnew reportdiscusses opportunities in the animal services sector to address these barriers, ensure equitable services for all people and animals, and prevent worker burnout and compassion fatigue.
In reviewing the report, you will find actionable suggestions on updating program design, service delivery, and policy to improve outcomes for animals, their guardians, and animal service workers.
Together, we can create positive change and find long-term solutions to preventing animal neglect.
Continue reading below for a preview of the best practices checklist for employing a trauma-informed, culturally safe, and One Welfare focused approach, or read the full report here.
To implement facets of trauma-informed practices, organizations can:
Have an understanding of triggers
Utilize accessible, non-triggering language
Center transparency in processes
Focus on voice, choice, respect, and sensitivity
Unlearn assumptions and actively challenge biases
Practice non-judgment
Meet people where they are at in their lives
Practice cultural sensitivity, awareness, and safety, through a historical understanding of the communities we work with
Incorporate trauma-informed learnings into internal training policy
To update the practices and processes of addressing animal neglect to ensure cultural awareness, sensitivity, and safety, organizations can:
Have a cultural and historical understanding of the communities we work with
Have a community liaison for Indigenous communities
Build and maintain respectful and trusting relationships
Develop internal policy regarding cultural sensitivity training
Incorporate mandatory staff and leadership training on cultural safety, awareness, and sensitivity
Incorporate learnings about the history of the Indigenous communities the organization works with into training materials
To implement facets of outreach-first and prevention-based models, organizations can:
Engage in community engagement/collaboration
Formalize networks to provide more resources
Focus on relationship building with and in communities
Develop an internal policy about community engagement practices
To address compassion fatigue & burnout in staff, organizations can:
Understand the connection between compassion fatigue/burnout and re-traumatization, and learn the signs/signals of burnout and compassion fatigue in staff and self
Implement staff training for high-stress situations with tangible examples
Promote and normalize wellness policies and practices
Practice debriefing with coworkers
Have staff engage in optional counseling and mental wellness activities during work hours
Improve or develop internal mental health policy
Incorporate mandatory mental health training
Addition of wellness days
Make available or suggest sector-specific counselling
This report has been made possible by funding from the Government of British Columbia’s Ministry of Agriculture through their Canadian Agricultural Partnership initiative. We thank them for their support of this project. The views expressed in this report do not reflect the views of the funders.
We would also like to thank the Animal Welfare Foundation of Canada and the Vancouver Foundation for supporting this project as a whole, particularly in its next steps, which will be an online training course informed by the findings of this report.
