Paws for Thought

Karen Hollings is a highly experienced paramedic who has been employed by St John Ambulance in Western Australia since 2003. 

She loves her job and has been awarded several commendations over the course of her career, but it has also come at a high cost.

Like so many other first responders, she is confronted with trauma on a daily basis. She sees people at their best, their worst, and when they are vulnerable.

In 2014, a vicious assault by a drug and alcohol-affected patient left Karen with multiple injuries, requiring extensive surgery, rehabilitation and ultimately leading to post traumatic stress. 

Her recovery was slow - six years in total - but canine therapy played a significant role in helping her get back into society and eventually returning to work.

Karen has now started a project focused solely on the mental health of first responders, with dogs at the heart of it.

Dogs for First Responders was established in 2022.

Wendy Coombe's world came crashing down in November 2014 after years of buried trauma and corporate burnout led to a breakdown.

Overnight, a successful career as a high-functioning executive collapsed, leaving her floundering without a 'safe place' (her professional life) and a shattered identity.

Describing the next few years as "a Forrest Gump-like alternative universe," Wendy began the long, slow journey back to wellness. 

In six months she walked 2.5 million steps with her Border Collie, Jack, trying to make sense of her trauma, and finding solace in her dog and horse.

The realisation that animals were a key factor in her recovery prompted Wendy to go searching for a national organisation where she could learn more about animal-assisted therapy and where she could find help.

She drew blanks at every turn. In the end, the answer was clear: solving her own crisis and thousands of others in similar circumstances required a bold, life-changing step.

In February 2018, Wendy walked into her accountant's office and registered a new health promotion charity, Animal Therapies Ltd.  Five years down the track, it is now recognised as Australia's leading advocate for advancing health through animal-assisted services.

Not many people can put their hand on their heart and say their job makes their heart sing. 

Vicki Macdermid counts herself among the lucky few.

The executive business coach and chartered accountant has established a model for leadership that accesses the power and wisdom of horses.

Her workshops are a little different to the leadership courses that most CEOs sign up for. 

"When I see senior business people leaving judgement at the door and allowing an animal that has roamed the Earth for millions of years to teach them a thing or two, it is truly special."

Vicki is one  of the key speakers at the 2023 Animal Therapies Ltd conference in Brisbane. You can learn more about her work at www.vickimacdermid.com

Why do animals play such a pivotal role in helping humans to heal? And how can we ensure this powerful bond is taken seriously by governments and the community? 

Child psychologist Dr Aubrey Fine has spent 50 years working in the field of animal-assisted therapy and will deliver the keynote address at the 2023 Animal Therapies Ltd annual conference in Brisbane. Ahead of his visit to Australia in February, Dr Fine shares some insights from a lifetime’s work in the sector.

Seventy per cent of veterinarians know at least one colleague who has taken their own life and almost the same number are experiencing mental health issues within their practice.  Long hours, low pay, high stress, unrealistic client expectations, financial pressures and a lack of mentoring and support for young veterinary graduates have created a crisis for the industry, with many vets leaving the profession. 

Veterinary pharmaceutical company Elanco has partnered with Animal Therapies Ltd to  help tackle the problem by offering animal-assisted therapy to struggling vets.  Elanco Wellbeing Lead, Dr Cate McPherson, explains why the industry is at a tipping point. 

Northern Territory resident Rashida Khan wears many hats: animal nutritionist; horse, cattle and miniature mule breeder; equine assisted therapist; and corporate and personal coach; not to mention full-time carer for her 82-year-old father. 

There’s not much downtime juggling four businesses from her base at Red Rocks Stud in the Top End, but she wouldn’t have it any other way. We caught up with Rashida by Zoom, just outside of Katherine, 300 kilometres from home and one of the many regions she visits as part of her mobile equine therapy business. 

With a sense of smell up to 100,000 times more powerful than a human’s, it’s perhaps no surprise that dogs can reliably detect hundreds of different scents, including COVID-19. But as Dr Anne-Lise Chaber explains, their potential as an effective screening tool goes way beyond the pandemic - into the realm of cancer, tuberculosis, influenza and other diseases.

Ever thought of pairing prisoners with retired greyhounds to domesticate the latter for adoption in the community? It's an odd combination but it pays dividends, for inmates and ex-racing dogs alike. Since 2014, the women's and men's prisons in South Australia have re-homed 400 greyhounds as part of the largest foster program of its kind in the world. The results are life changing, as you will hear in this podcast.

Lesley Porter was orphaned at the age of five when she lost her entire family in a car accident in England. She was the only survivor. Raised by her grandmother, who brought her to Australia, Lesley was shunted between relatives and friends for the next six years. Between them, they abused her sexually, physically and emotionally. At 11 years of age, horses saved her. A chance meeting with the owner of a riding school in Healesville, Victoria, proved the turning point in her life.