Some counselors have four legs
Mental health volunteers: ‘We are watching healing’ in Uvalde
UVALDE — Dark scribbles. That’s what students in Uvalde were drawing in the days immediately after the shooting at Robb Elementary School that killed 19 kids and two teachers, said Ayla Rahmberg, a San Antonio-based volunteer with Canines for Christ.
“The pictures were so sad,” Rahmberg said. “The feelings they were drawing were really heart-wrenching.”
But over the summer, the national organization provided therapy dogs to accompany or just interact for a few minutes with hundreds of kids.
The dogs were with them at funerals, community events and vacation Bible school, a summer church tradition.
The children are back in school and their sketches have become brighter, Rahmberg said.
“There were pictures that we saw of kids drawing a school with a dog and a heart around it,” she said. “That is new. That was a change. We are watching healing. That progress is happening. It’s slow. The grief is not going to ever go away, but the process is hopefully in motion.”
Multiple organizations share helping Uvalde residents deal with loss and grief, in and out of school settings, with many trying to hire mental health professionals from a supply of applicants that can’t keep up with demand.
That leaves animals to play a central role. Parents have purchased puppies for their kids.
The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, which started classes earlier this month, has therapy dogs for its students.
Sacred Heart Uvalde, the local Catholic school that doubled its enrollment after the tragedy, has had dogs on campus almost every day since its semester began Aug. 15.
Canines for Christ will supply them once a week for the rest of the year.
“Something about petting a dog. People start petting a dog, and it just brings down the defenses,” said Jill Powell, another volunteer and the organization’s director of membership. “It helps you feel better and more relaxed and helps you start talking.”
Sacred Heart has a designated play therapy room where counselors meet with students in groups to share strategies for coping with mental health struggles or for one-on-one chats.
“The dogs are like counselors with fur,” said Joseph Olan, the school’s principal.
Students can come into the room at any point during the school day to play with the dogs. Sometimes counselors will specifically request a dog to join a session.
“Dogs create a comfort like no other,” Rahmberg said. “Even if the kids don’t want to talk, they can pet them, or lay on them, or hug them.”
Uvalde CISD will have at least two comfort dogs on each campus every day for the first three weeks of school, along with a handful of changes being made to support the still grieving community.
The district previously had five licensed clinicians serving its eight campuses, along with one academic school counselor on each campus. This year, it has added two more licensed clinicians and is trying to hire a third.
“It’s been a challenge because all of the agencies in our area are also looking to hire,” said Nichole Henderson, the district’s lead family and student support counselor. “We are all going after the same applicants.”
In addition, the community is receiving additional counselors and support from a number of other nonprofits, including Communities in Schools, Texas Child Health Access Through Telemedicine and The Children’s Bereavement Center.
Family Service, a nonprofit that has served Uvalde for 25 years, has increased its number of dedicated counselors, who can go wherever a family needs them to be, including in their homes or schools.
All the Family Service counselors are bilingual.
“When you are dealing with a tragedy, sometimes you might say something in one language and some things in another language,” Garr said. “That is how you might process emotion.”
Right now, families have to get used to going back into school buildings, a tough time, she said.
“We want to make sure these students can still thrive and understand it is OK to smile even if you lost your best friend or cousin or sibling,” Garr said. “Another way to honor those that they have loved and lost is to keep moving forward and create positive happy moments and community moments.”
After their first week, students seem to be adjusting, smiling and “thrilled to see their friends and their teachers,” Henderson said.
But more difficult times might lie ahead, Henderson warned.
“The need for support is going to be long term, and we are adjusting based on what we are seeing,” Henderson said. “It is still the first week of school. I think the excitement has been a nice distraction for students; but we know that with grief and trauma, those times of the years that create stress are around the holidays, anniversaries, birthdays.
“It’s just going to take time.”