Anchor: Mental health awareness is reaching new heights.
NCC News reporter Erik Slater tells us about one nonprofit that is using pets to treat those in the local community.
Reporter: Paws of CNY is helping ease mental health battles one pet at a time.
The nonprofit partners with local organizations to provide service dogs in nursing homes, hospitals, schools, and more.
Paws of CNY director of communications Rebekah Colling says the impact of the animals far exceeds a feel-good story.
Colling: ”There’s proven studies that therapy pets improve people’s overall health, they help with depression, they help with anxiety when some of these people are terminally ill, so it’s really just going in and helping to make these people feel better when there aren’t really many other things that can.”
Reporter: Therapy dogs are certified before they are brought into facilities to work with patients.
While the Covid 19 pandemic caused an increase in demand for therapy dogs, heightened restrictions forced the nonprofit to pause operations.
Colling: ”Obviously these people who are in hospitals right now need therapy dogs more than ever but for a long time they couldn’t have any extra people in the facilities, so we were out of commission completely for over a year.”
Reporter: Colling says Paws has returned to work at Upstate Medical Center, Crouse Hospital, Syracuse University and Hancock International Airport.
The organization hopes to return to helping ease mental health concerns across Central New York on a larger scale in the coming months.
Erik Slater…N-C-C News.
Syracuse, N.Y. (NCC News) – Mental health awareness is reaching new heights.
Paws of CNY is helping ease mental health struggles one pet at a time. The nonprofit works to partner with local organizations, providing service dogs in nursing homes, hospitals, schools, and more.
Paws of CNY director of communications Rebekah Colling says the impact of the animals far exceeds a feel-good story.
”There’s proven studies that therapy pets improve people’s overall health,” Colling said. “They help with depression, they help with anxiety when some of these people are terminally ill, so it’s really just going in and helping to make these people feel better when there aren’t really many other things that can.”
Therapy dogs are certified before they are brought into facilities to work with patients.
While the Covid 19 pandemic caused an increase in demand for therapy dogs, heightened restrictions forced the nonprofit to pause operations.
”Obviously these people who are in hospitals right now need therapy dogs more than ever, but for a long time they couldn’t have any extra people in the facilities, so we were out of commission completely for over a year,” Colling said.
Colling says Paws has returned to work at Upstate Medical Center, Crouse Hospital, Syracuse University and Hancock International Airport.
According to Colling, the organization hopes to return to helping ease mental health concerns across Central New York on a larger scale in the coming months.
