ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — A group of therapy dogs and mental health counselors are traveling back from Highland Park Illinois, after providing mental health services following a shooting on July 4th that rocked the community.
The Tri-State Canine Response Team includes members who live right here in St Augustine
"In the group that we have deployed here, we have a dog that's 7-months-old named Diego. He's Florida boy,"Janice Campbell, the founder of Tri-State Canine Response Team, said.
The crisis counselors and therapy dogs provide grieving services and mental support. Team members are required to complete courses in Incident Command, psychological first aid, and Mental Health First Aid.
"We can provide our crisis counselors and our adults for community resiliency and recovery. Just to be there to help and support the first responders that also worked during the incident," Campbell said.
"With the dogs, everyone is drawn to the dogs. And then that gives us the opportunity to take the next step and start talking to people about self care, talking to them about their reactions that they're having that are absolutely expected and normal, and what to expect going forward," Marge Inscho, a group member said.
The nonprofit began in 2015 in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey but has since expanded into multiple states, including right here in Northeast Florida.
“In my area, St. Augustine there is, not much going on in terms of therapy dogs and serving the community… So I decided to start to build my team," Danny Terrosi, lead with the Florida Chapter, said.
The team has also traveled to Buffalo, NY and Uvalde, Texas using the therapy dogs combined with the mental health training of their members to help these communities heal.
“Once we have an invite, we're able to come out to support the community, we're always looking for volunteers, and people who would like to help if it's with their dog or without their dog or supporting our deployments, we are all volunteers," Campbell said.
The hope is to continue to expand however relies on donations to complete the missions. Options for supporting the team can be found here.