So I have been thinking a lot since this last school shooting (who hasn’t been?) …..It started off with typing on my friend Hollye Dexter’s Facebook page, who is an amazingly tireless advocate for sensible gun control, “what can I do?” Then I thought this isn’t only just a gun control issue, this is a mental health issue and my fantastic friend Amy Ferris came to mind, who edited a book of essays on depression and suicide “Shades of Blue”. I know both these woman because of my beautiful, musician friend Julie Silver who does healing benefit concerts in places like Charlottesville and Vegas.
As a society, we failed this kid. When he was still in foster care and underage he stopped going to counseling. Chinook Horses works with Child Protective Services. They do their job, they are just overburdened and under staffed and more cuts are coming. More often than not we get kids who are misdiagnosed and then medicated for ADHD or sensory processing disorder and guess what? It is TRAUMA!!! i told my volunteers and coworkers today after our session today, “we ARE doing something!”.
This is what Chinook Horses is doing and what we will keep on doing: -Advocating for treatments to be covered by insurance that work like Equine Assisted Therapy when traditional therapies aren’t working. We are participating in a research project next fall. -Host a pro bono session to our overworked and underpaid Social Workers in the Department of Family Services -Raise funds to give as many scholarships to provide Equine Therapy Sessions to as many kiddos in our community as possible so they can feel love and hope. We have seen the results and we might be preventing even just one kiddo from falling off the tracks. -Volunteer for organizations like Chinook Horses – If you work in the service of others, please continue to do so – Donate locally and/or to organizations where you know how the money is being spent.
Thank you to my partners! You give me hope and light when it is easy to get bogged down by the shadows!