"Ask About Pets!" Initiative: Catalyze Pet-Inclusive Human Services in Your Community!

Описание: The One, Two: "Ask About Pets!" Initiative & Pet Help Finder to Catalyze Pet-Inclusive Human Services in Your Community! (Part 1)
My Dog Is My Home Conference 2025: Why Pets? Why Now? The Urgency of Inclusion
Day 2 - March 26, 2025

Speaker: Janet Hoy-Gerlach, Director of Veterinary Social Work, Open Door Veterinary Collective

Moderator: Christine Kim, Founder of My Dog Is My Home

While we may be routinely asking about pets as human healthcare or social service providers, unfortunately most human healthcare and social service providers do not routinely ask about pets. This interactive two-step workshop equips participants with practical strategies to encourage the uptake of pet-inclusive practices by human service organizations in their communities. Together, we can work toward pet-inclusive (and hence truly client-centered) care in human healthcare and social services becoming the standard rather than the exception!

In the first half of this session, attendees will explore the "Ask About Pets!" Initiative, a simple yet powerful framework of “3 Questions” designed to support human-animal families and identify barriers to care through three key questions. Participants will learn strategies to: catalyze the adoption of this approach in diverse settings; engage and dialogue with community stakeholders; and how to embed the initiative into existing practices and protocols.

Ideal for social workers, housing/shelter professionals, healthcare providers, and community leaders, this workshop offers actionable steps to build interprofessional collaboration and expand access to resources that benefit both people and their pets.

Objectives -

-Participants will learn how to effectively implement the "Ask About Pets!" Initiative by adapting the “3 Questions” to their specific community and organizational contexts.

-Participants will be able to describe at least three rationales for asking the routinely “3 questions”/engaging in pet-inclusive practices.

-Participants will identify community-specific strategies to engage stakeholders and foster inter-professional and inter-agency collaboration (and “buy-in”!) around advancing pet-inclusive practices in their communities.

-Participants will acquire hands-on skills to navigate and use the Pet Help Finder platform to connect people with pets to needed resources (affordable pet care, pet food, crisis fostering, etc.)

-Participants will be able to demonstrate and teach others in their communities to utilize Pet Help Finder effectively, creating a sustainable network of pet support resources.