In response to 2020 World Mental Health Day, Meg Daley Olmert kindly took time to put pen to paper...
On February 4, 2020, United Nation’s Secretary General, delivered a dire assessment of the human condition at the dawn of the 21st Century. “Today, a wind of madness is sweeping the globe,” was his warning of a global mental health crisis that is threatening the fabric of civilization. Millions of people—the highest number ever in human history--are caught in the crossfire of wars that have destroyed their homes, their families, their countries. Parents are helpless to protect the 350 million children growing up surrounded by death and destruction. The 70.8 million refugees have lost their homes and their families and now must battle poverty and squalor in the refugee camps overflowing with fear and despair. While these survivors may feel utterly alone in their suffering, they are not. Their grief, depression, and desperation cannot be confined to refugee camps. The damage to the human psyche is vast and will be felt by all for generations to come.
War destroys our loving bonds and leaves only distrust and fear in its wake. And yet, as social mammals we must connect or we die. Social connection is so essential to our survival that we have evolved a powerful brain network that attracts us to each other and rewards our social efforts with a sense of relaxation or happiness. It is this neural circuitry that ensures that parents will care for their babies, people will continue to make babies, and that civilizations can thrive on mutual trust and cooperation. War traumatizes our social brain network and threatens the social health of survivors, their families, communities, and economies. The new understanding of conflict-trauma as a social injury helps to explain why community based support efforts may be the most effective strategy for restoring social and mental stability to war survivors and refugees.
It is, however, a huge challenge to find warm and supportive social support in communities ravaged by human violence. In Northern Uganda, humanity was under attack for 20 years. Two generations of Northern Ugandans were the victimized by unspeakable violence and cruelty during the long civil war between Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the Ugandan government. Forced abductions and conscription destroyed the distinction of killer and victim, child and murderer. Thousands who survived are alone, their loved ones killed or turned against them.
BigFix entered this toxic environment with the hope of eradicating rabies and kindling a sense of empathy and kindness for the dogs and other animals in Northern Uganda. Our mission to help the people of Northern Uganda see that dogs can be safe, healthy, beautiful loving companions was a long shot. The odds that we could awaken the human-dog bond in a place where dogs were feared, not loved—in people who had suffered so much for so long, were quite slim. Fortunately, research has shown that all friendly nurturing social engagement releases oxytocin in the human brain. Oxytocin is the key neurochemical modulator of the social brain network, instilling us with the urge to connection and the psychological and physical sense of relief when we do. Research also shows that petting, grooming, talking to, sharing eye contact and warmth with a friendly dog naturally triggers oxytocin production in both people and dogs, forging powerful social bonds that have endured for over 30,000 years.
Dog guardianship also offers significant protection against the debilitating effects of chronic stress. Training dogs has also been shown to reduce the symptoms of PTSD. Every Guardian who’s participated in the Comfort Dog Project has experienced significant relief from their debilitating symptoms of PTSD. With their Comfort Dogs at their sides, 38 Guardians are now more resilient and know what love—both giving and receiving--feels like and how to share it. Through their dog training classes, group counselling, and field educator work, they have learned to trust and cooperate with each other. They have become a close-knit family that celebrates each other’s successes and comes together to ease each other’s pain. This new camaraderie is evidence that bonding with a Comfort Dog can improve social brain functioning and inspire bonding between humans as well. The Guardians came for the dogs, but discovered further comfort in the community they’ve created.
Together they are spreading the One Health message in their communities that being good to dogs is good for you and hundreds more now want to join the program. The Guardians are living proof that this safe, effective, inexpensive inter-species humane psychosocial intervention can work even in the poorest, most brutalized places in the world. Now the challenge is to fan this glimmer of hope and give all of Northern Uganda’s people and dogs a chance to save each other.
Post Script: Covid 19 has done what no other force for good or evil has been able to do. It has blown a pandemic mental health crisis into each of our lives. In our forced social isolation and grief for the suffering and death in all our communities, we too are realizing how much we need each other. It has also made us realize that we are a global species whose physical and mental fate is inextricably entwined. This is a GOOD THING. This is the evolutionary lesson Covid 19 has to teach us. On this 2020 Mental Health Awareness hold your comfort creature close. And let’s pledge to not forget these lessons too many have died to teach us.
On February 4, 2020, United Nation’s Secretary General, delivered a dire assessment of the human condition at the dawn of the 21st Century. “Today, a wind of madness is sweeping the globe,” was his warning of a global mental health crisis that is threatening the fabric of civilization. Millions of people—the highest number ever in human history--are caught in the crossfire of wars that have destroyed their homes, their families, their countries. Parents are helpless to protect the 350 million children growing up surrounded by death and destruction. The 70.8 million refugees have lost their homes and their families and now must battle poverty and squalor in the refugee camps overflowing with fear and despair. While these survivors may feel utterly alone in their suffering, they are not. Their grief, depression, and desperation cannot be confined to refugee camps. The damage to the human psyche is vast and will be felt by all for generations to come.
War destroys our loving bonds and leaves only distrust and fear in its wake. And yet, as social mammals we must connect or we die. Social connection is so essential to our survival that we have evolved a powerful brain network that attracts us to each other and rewards our social efforts with a sense of relaxation or happiness. It is this neural circuitry that ensures that parents will care for their babies, people will continue to make babies, and that civilizations can thrive on mutual trust and cooperation. War traumatizes our social brain network and threatens the social health of survivors, their families, communities, and economies. The new understanding of conflict-trauma as a social injury helps to explain why community based support efforts may be the most effective strategy for restoring social and mental stability to war survivors and refugees.
It is, however, a huge challenge to find warm and supportive social support in communities ravaged by human violence. In Northern Uganda, humanity was under attack for 20 years. Two generations of Northern Ugandans were the victimized by unspeakable violence and cruelty during the long civil war between Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the Ugandan government. Forced abductions and conscription destroyed the distinction of killer and victim, child and murderer. Thousands who survived are alone, their loved ones killed or turned against them.
BigFix entered this toxic environment with the hope of eradicating rabies and kindling a sense of empathy and kindness for the dogs and other animals in Northern Uganda. Our mission to help the people of Northern Uganda see that dogs can be safe, healthy, beautiful loving companions was a long shot. The odds that we could awaken the human-dog bond in a place where dogs were feared, not loved—in people who had suffered so much for so long, were quite slim. Fortunately, research has shown that all friendly nurturing social engagement releases oxytocin in the human brain. Oxytocin is the key neurochemical modulator of the social brain network, instilling us with the urge to connection and the psychological and physical sense of relief when we do. Research also shows that petting, grooming, talking to, sharing eye contact and warmth with a friendly dog naturally triggers oxytocin production in both people and dogs, forging powerful social bonds that have endured for over 30,000 years.
Dog guardianship also offers significant protection against the debilitating effects of chronic stress. Training dogs has also been shown to reduce the symptoms of PTSD. Every Guardian who’s participated in the Comfort Dog Project has experienced significant relief from their debilitating symptoms of PTSD. With their Comfort Dogs at their sides, 38 Guardians are now more resilient and know what love—both giving and receiving--feels like and how to share it. Through their dog training classes, group counselling, and field educator work, they have learned to trust and cooperate with each other. They have become a close-knit family that celebrates each other’s successes and comes together to ease each other’s pain. This new camaraderie is evidence that bonding with a Comfort Dog can improve social brain functioning and inspire bonding between humans as well. The Guardians came for the dogs, but discovered further comfort in the community they’ve created.
Together they are spreading the One Health message in their communities that being good to dogs is good for you and hundreds more now want to join the program. The Guardians are living proof that this safe, effective, inexpensive inter-species humane psychosocial intervention can work even in the poorest, most brutalized places in the world. Now the challenge is to fan this glimmer of hope and give all of Northern Uganda’s people and dogs a chance to save each other.
Post Script: Covid 19 has done what no other force for good or evil has been able to do. It has blown a pandemic mental health crisis into each of our lives. In our forced social isolation and grief for the suffering and death in all our communities, we too are realizing how much we need each other. It has also made us realize that we are a global species whose physical and mental fate is inextricably entwined. This is a GOOD THING. This is the evolutionary lesson Covid 19 has to teach us. On this 2020 Mental Health Awareness hold your comfort creature close. And let’s pledge to not forget these lessons too many have died to teach us.