Our agency buildings will not be open on Thursday 2/3 or Friday 2/4. All scheduled appointments will be switched to telehealth. Clients will be notified via phone.
Equine Assisted Therapy & Social Skills Learning Experience
South Community Behavioral Health has partnered with Elliott Stables in Germantown, Ohio to provide Equine Assisted Therapy and Social Skills Training for at risk youth.
South Community Behavioral Health has partnered with Elliott Stables to provide an Equine Assisted Therapy and Social Skills Learning Experience Program. This program involves individual or group activities that require youth to apply social skills, creative thinking, non-verbal communication, problem-solving, confidence and leadership. The children that are referred are displaying problems of depression, self esteem, in-attention, anxiety or negative behaviors that are causing them difficulty in functioning in their homes, schools or communities. Many of the children have been exposed to violence or other trauma related issues.
Does it Improve the Lives of Youth?
Equine Assisted Learning groups are not horseback riding. The youth involved learn about themselves and others by participating in activities while interacting with the horses, then processing or discussing thoughts,
beliefs, behaviors and patterns.
Since the program’s existence, youth in this program have consistently
shown improvement in the areas of:
Accepting responsibility
Improving support of others
Making good decisions
Taking Responsibility
Increase in self-esteem
Why horses?
Horses are social animals that have distinct personalities, moods, and attitudes. They are sensitive to non-verbal communication. All activities with our horses are designed to relate back to what is happening at home, school, work, relationships, etc.
Many of the horses used in the program are rescued by Elliott Stables from other farms who cannot afford to care for the horses, or from horse adoption agencies in the state of Ohio. The horses are given a second chance to life. The youth value the bond that is created with these animals and can relate to the horse’s struggles in life with their own experiences.
This past month we were all shocked and horrified to learn of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. The community was shaken to its core but seems to have responded in a most remarkable fashion during this very trying period.
The shooting tragedy, however, affected many more individuals than the immediate Newtown community. It made numerous children in communities all across the country afraid, and led parents to question the safety of their children in their neighborhood schools.
We struggle to comprehend such violence towards innocent children and their teachers but do realize similar contemptible acts by mankind will occur in our communities in the future.
Given this reality, childmind.org offered some advice for caregivers of children on how to help children cope when such traumatic events occur. These offerings and others are listed below:
To be therapeutic you must stay calm. Parents or other caregivers must not transfer their own anxieties or fears to the children in their care.
Create an environment that affords them an opportunity to voice their fears and respond to their questions honestly and patiently. One does not have to “push” them to talk as this may be counterproductive but they must appreciate that you are comfortable discussing their fears.
Be direct but also developmentally appropriate in your conversations. This interchange is best done in limited amounts over multiple conversations, not a single marathon sit-down. Expect a child to come back again and again with questions as they build a narrative about what happened; with your help it can be a healthy one, even if it is a very difficult subject.Assist the child in developing a narrative where they are a problem-solver, not a victim. Adoption of a victim stance lends itself to Post Traumatic Stress conditions.
It is critical to make kids feel safe with love and continued routines. There is perhaps nothing more damaging to a child’s development than a feeling that the world is on balance a negative place. Security gives children confidence at the same time that it lets them be kids while they need to be.Although difficult, attempt to limit exposure from the surrounding environment. Turn the TV off as appropriate when young children are present. Excessive news reporting, especially detailing people in crisis can elevate anxieties even further.
Finally, it’s important to keep an eye on kids and be alert to signs that they might not be recovering in a healthy way – changes in their patterns of sleep and eating, unusual irritability or trouble focusing, obsessive or pervasive worry that may take the form of pronounced separation anxiety.
At South Community we are attempting to transform mental health and physical health care for all of our patients but it really takes a community approach to make substantial and lasting change, especially with our most vulnerable child population. Research is confirming that the most important factors in creating resiliency in our children to allow them to recover from various traumas are the community interventions not individual interventions.
The challenge ahead of us is to foster this sense of community for all children by better collaboration and integration of all our community resources.
Adapted from “The Connecticut Tragedy: How to Help Children Cope With Frightening News” by Harold S. Koplewicz, MD, Child Mind Institute [info@childmind.org] – 12/14/2012
We are committed to providing the best care to the persons we serve. Please share suggestions that would improve your experience working with South Community.
To Whom It May Concern:
I am a parent of a child with special needs. We have been involved with South Community for many years. It is a partnership that I have come to rely on as an integral part of my son’s support system.
The summer program that South Community has in place is an awesome program that provides a wonderful opportunity for many kids at risk, who otherwise would be left out of a truly adventurous experience.
READ MORE >>
I honestly do not know what I would have done without South Community. It has helped me so much in rebuilding my life. I went from living at home with my mother for financial reasons, and also severe depression, to having a place of my own and a job!
Thanks to South Community, I was able to get the therapy I needed. I was also able to obtain a caseworker, Lynn Wynstrep. Lynn helped me get my life back in order. READ MORE >>
To Staff of South Community:
Thank you all for a wonderful training year. You guys were a great supportive staff to work with. I felt like I was part of the team here, and I appreciate everyone for helping me with anything I needed throughout the year.
I know that many agencies talk about having a recovery focus, but the staff here truly implements it. I noticed it and my clients noticed it. From the front service desk to the providers in the back, there is an emphasis on client care. READ MORE >>
