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For over a decade, Saskatchewan’s St. John Ambulance volunteer therapy dog teams have been offering informal crisis response in the province. In 2022, Public Safety Canada funded St. John Ambulance Canada to coordinate its provincial and territorial Therapy Dog and Medical First Responder volunteer base to assist with local community crises. Saskatchewan has faced increased wildfire evacuations in recent years, particularly affecting Northern Indigenous communities. This chapter applies a One Health framework to consider the intersections between humans, nonhuman animals, and the environment, and related wholistic Indigenous perspectives on health and wellbeing, to explore how volunteer human-therapy dog teams can support emergency response efforts during wildfire evacuations. The contributions of volunteer support to community resilience are under-recognized in crisis situations in Canada, and the specific value of visiting volunteer therapy dog teams has received little attention. Insights are drawn from the Saskatchewan St. John Ambulance Therapy Dog program’s crisis response experiences to date, including violent community incidents, mass casualty events, implementation of the first hospital emergency department therapy dog program in the country, visiting in carceral environments, and offering support at COVID vaccination clinics. Drawing on the value of a case report method, our review includes on-the-ground experiences of two long-term therapy dog handlers responding to Saskatchewan crisis situations (authors), lessons learned identified by the Saskatchewan St. John Ambulance community development coordinator (author), and research findings from our own published therapy dog studies in stressful environments. We include findings from others’ studies as well, and specifically scholarship from more formalized therapy dog crisis response programs in the United States. Health and wellbeing benefits for those visited by a therapy dog team include distraction, reduced anxiety and stress, and increased emotional and physical comfort. The goal of this chapter is to inform therapy dog-specific policy development and practice considerations, emphasizing the interconnectivity of therapy dogs, their human handlers, and the environment, for wildfire evacuations and possibly other climate-related crises in Canada and elsewhere.

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Guidance for Canada’s Wildfire Emergency Response Efforts: Learning from Volunteer Therapy Dog Program Support During Saskatchewan Crises

  • 章节

  • 发表日期：

    2025年

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  • Mitch Daschuk,
  • Colleen Dell,
  • Allison Morgan,
  • Darlene Chalmers,
  • Lisa Schwann,
  • Larry Laliberte,
  • Sharon Acoose

摘要

For over a decade, Saskatchewan’s St. John Ambulance volunteer therapy dog teams have been offering informal crisis response in the province. In 2022, Public Safety Canada funded St. John Ambulance Canada to coordinate its provincial and territorial Therapy Dog and Medical First Responder volunteer base to assist with local community crises. Saskatchewan has faced increased wildfire evacuations in recent years, particularly affecting Northern Indigenous communities. This chapter applies a One Health framework to consider the intersections between humans, nonhuman animals, and the environment, and related wholistic Indigenous perspectives on health and wellbeing, to explore how volunteer human-therapy dog teams can support emergency response efforts during wildfire evacuations. The contributions of volunteer support to community resilience are under-recognized in crisis situations in Canada, and the specific value of visiting volunteer therapy dog teams has received little attention. Insights are drawn from the Saskatchewan St. John Ambulance Therapy Dog program’s crisis response experiences to date, including violent community incidents, mass casualty events, implementation of the first hospital emergency department therapy dog program in the country, visiting in carceral environments, and offering support at COVID vaccination clinics. Drawing on the value of a case report method, our review includes on-the-ground experiences of two long-term therapy dog handlers responding to Saskatchewan crisis situations (authors), lessons learned identified by the Saskatchewan St. John Ambulance community development coordinator (author), and research findings from our own published therapy dog studies in stressful environments. We include findings from others’ studies as well, and specifically scholarship from more formalized therapy dog crisis response programs in the United States. Health and wellbeing benefits for those visited by a therapy dog team include distraction, reduced anxiety and stress, and increased emotional and physical comfort. The goal of this chapter is to inform therapy dog-specific policy development and practice considerations, emphasizing the interconnectivity of therapy dogs, their human handlers, and the environment, for wildfire evacuations and possibly other climate-related crises in Canada and elsewhere.