The mission of AIR Attitudes In Reverse® is to educate society about mental health. People need to know that the best suicide prevention plan is a good mental health awareness program. In addition, AIR. tries to educate that ALL people should be treated with dignity, respect, and understanding, no matter what illness they might have.
AIR Dogs: Paws For Minds
In 2012, AIR began its program which improves the mental well-being of people by bringing dogs into their lives. Petting a dog releases good de-stressing brain chemicals and breaks down communication barriers.
AIR Dogs does this in several ways:
- Emotional Support Dogs placed with individuals with mental health disabilities: Our hope is to locate really great dogs in shelters and match them up with human partners who suffer from some mental health issue.
- AIR Dogs Exchange Meeting established: During these monthly dog-centric meetings, all humans and well-behaved dogs are welcomed. For the duration of the meeting, there are no people with disabilities, only people who love dogs.
- Certified Therapy Dogs travel with the AIR Team to student presentations, helping to make a tough topic easier for students.
- Certified Therapy Dogs attend community events, helping to break down communication barriers and start many conversations about good mental health and suicide prevention.
- Tricia Baker, CPDT-KA, Therapy Dog Evaluator, Canine Good Citizen Evaluator & Certified Mental Health First Aider presents Paws for Wellness. To find out information on this one-hour presentation covering the benefits of support animals, contact us.
The AIR Dogs: Paws for Minds program has been involved with Rutgers University in a study showing the healing affects that therapy dogs have on children with autism: http://ruffloveus.wordpress.com/.
For more information and to begin the search for an emotional support animal, please contact us.