MORE GOOD NEWS!
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Animals Really Can Help Us Feel Better It doesn’t take much evidence to see that pets bring us joy. Ask anyone with a dog, for example, how their furry friend’s unconditional love can brighten their day. Mental health professionals are increasingly acknowledging pets’ effects on our well-being, too. Even Freud kept his dog in his office during sessions with his patients. A 2017 study from American Humane showed that
This Chef In Sacramento Launched A Service To Help Combat Mental Illness Among Restaurant Workers
therapy dogs can provide significant psychosocial bene-
When celebrity chef, author, and travel documentarian
in peer counseling will wear a purple lapel and will reach
fits to families and individuals during periods of extreme
Anthony Bourdain died by suicide in 2018, it rocked the
out to those who are struggling and be open to conversa-
stress. Emotional support animals can also lower han-
food industry. And when the restaurant and hospitality
tions with anyone who needs help.
dlers heart rates and increase the flow of oxytocin (the
community in Sacramento lost 12 people in a year for a
According to a 2015 Substance Abuse and Mental Health
variety of reasons — including suicide — restaurant owner
Services Administration study, 17 percent of full-time ser-
And according to a study in the Journal of Evidence-In-
Patrick Mulvaney decided to take action.
vice and hospitality employees suffer from substance abuse
formed Social Work, animal-assisted therapy can make
“The startling suicide of Anthony Bourdain and others
disorders. The goal is to provide tools and skills to identify
a difference particularly in people living with post-trau-
here in my hometown of Sacramento brought home for me
and talk about mental health issues in a safe environment
matic stress disorder. Psychologists noted an 82 percent
how inadequate mental health services are for those in my
that encourages people to seek help they may need.
reduction in PTSD symptoms after animal-assisted ther-
industry,” Mulvaney wrote on his organization’s website.
“feel-good” hormone).
“Ours is an industry with a problem we don’t like to talk
apy. A similar study in the journal Applied Developmen-
Mulvaney and more than a dozen Sacramento chefs
about, but we can’t keep shying away from the hard conver-
tal Science demonstrated that canine therapy is particu-
met with mental health experts and other community
sations,” Bobbin Mulvaney — Patrick’s wife — said on the
larly useful in having positive effects on children healing
partners to create a program called I Got Your Back. They
organization’s website. “I Got Your Back is peer-to-peer
from trauma.
established a system in which employees drop a card into
support that helps us watch for signs of distress and gives
an anonymous box when they clock in for a shift, giving em-
us a safe place to talk about our personal struggles.”
The benefits of animal interaction and ownership are numerous because animals have a unique power to heal,
ployees a safe place to express their state of mind and the
The program piloted in 22 restaurants in 2019, and fol-
encourage, and even console us. We know that their com-
floor manager a new method for knowing how the crew is
lowing data analysis and interviews, I Got Your Back will
panionship helps to alleviate symptoms of mental health
doing and feeling. At least one restaurant employee trained
expand to other cities in California and nationwide.
conditions in both the home and in clinical settings.
THREE BOOKS TO READ ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH REASONS TO STAY ALIVE
THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE
THE COLLECTED SCHIZOPHRENIAS
At the age of 24, Matt Haig suffered from severe depression. In his memoir, he shares how he recovered and learned to live with severe depression and panic disorders.
Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, a leading expert on trauma, uses scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain. He explores innovative treatments that offer new paths to recovery.
Schizophrenia is not a single unifying diagnosis, and Esmé Weijun Wang writes not just to her fellow members of the “collected schizophrenias” but to those who wish to understand it as well.
