SRU staff member Elissa Druschel and her licensed crisis response dog Cricket were deployed through a national animal-assisted crisis response organization to go to California to help victims of the Los Angeles wildfires.
Druschel works at SRU as a Clerical Assistant at Academic Records & Registration. Cricket, who is also a licensed therapy dog, is a four-year-old Boston Terrier.
Cricket has been a therapy dog since she was a year old and was certified through Alliance of Therapy Dogs. She has been a crisis response dog for almost a year through HOPE Animal-Assisted Crisis Response.
Sylvia Zborowski, Co Regional Manager of Northeast HOPE AACR, explained what HOPE is and what they do.
“So, HOPE Animal-Assisted Crisis Response is an organization that was started in 1999 by a woman who did therapy dog work and realized that to do crisis canine work takes quite a bit more than just a therapy dog. So, she created the organization. It’s grown over time, 25 years and over 300 members, about 275 job teams,” Zborowski said.
HOPE is an organization that helps to provide comfort and encouragement through Animal-Assisted support to individuals affected by crises and disasters.
“We are an organization that trains therapy dogs to a higher level, to specifically respond to crisis and disasters, be they man-made or be they natural,” Zborowski said.
HOPE goes to various places to help individuals.
“We will send in our crisis-trained canines, and they will spend time with those who are affected. That can be anything from the families, their friends; those specifically impacted could be the first responders, firemen, policemen, military. So, we are a pretty broad-brush organization,” Zborowski said. “And the last piece that’s critical to know about us is we only deploy if we are requested. We never self-deploy.”
The Pacific Southwest Region reached out to HOPE nationwide and asked for teams so they could relieve their teams who have been helping for a month prior.
There is an app that they can choose if they want to go to the area when they need a team.
Last minute, Druschel made the decision to go.
“Something just told me that [I] should go and it was, like I said, eye-opening and probably something I’ll never forget,” Druschel said.
There was one other team with Druschel and Cricket who went to L.A. for the week.
“We left on a Sunday, and we came back on a Saturday, so Sunday travel day and Saturday travel day. So, we were out doing deployment work, visits and everything Monday through Friday,” Druschel said.
When Druschel and Cricket arrived, they began visiting with individuals at the center.
“There were people there that were victims, there were people there that were first responders,” Druschel said.
The team spent the day talking and providing comfort to those who needed it at the time.
“They had all kinds of different social services there so people could just do a one-stop shop,” Druschel said.
Monday through Wednesday, Druschel and Cricket visited Altadena Disaster Recovery Center. Thursday, the team got sent to West L.A. to the Red Cross Shelter.
“We met so many people and heard so many stories, and everybody had something different to say. There were a lot of people that were just thankful to be alive,” Druschel said.
The dogs took many breaks as well due to the stressful environment.
“Just having a crisis response dog, it’s almost a privilege because I saw her help so many people. You know, somebody would just be sitting there waiting their turn or whatever and I walk in and say ‘hey would you like to visit with Cricket,’ and instant smiles,” Druschel said.
There is a lot that goes into having a crisis response dog.
“She handled it so well, I was so proud of her when we came home. Just her being able to go out there, and her environment’s changed, she’s in a different situation, being able to adapt and still do what Cricket does,” Druschel said.
Yvonne Eaton-Stull a Social Work professor at SRU is involved with HOPE. The dogs help with the Master of Social Work (MSW) program at the university.
“In our MSW program, students can take electives utilizing therapy dogs in social work practice, and one of the courses is animal-assisted crisis response,” Eaton-Stull said. “For this course, students work alongside several certified crisis dogs [like Cricket] and provide hands-on crisis intervention and also get to evaluate dogs welfare.”
An example of a hands-on crisis intervention could be working with coping groups for incarcerated individuals.
There are three HOPE teams just at SRU.
“There’s a lot of emotion involved in crisis response work, and everybody needs some kind of outlet. I’m more than happy to share her, she loves it,” Druschel said.
