06Jul / 2021

Therapy Dogs Work from Home to Help Young Readers

This student-authored post is published by CPR in partnership with Medill News Service and the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views, policies, or positions of CPR or CDC.

Blake wears a hat to his online classes because he’s self-conscious about his hair. The second grader from Illinois is learning to read and write. Skills that are tough to learn without having to do it over videoconference. Blake practices writing by drawing letters on a tablet and reads aloud to his classmates over the computer.

To get him extra practice, Blake’s family signed him and his siblings up for a program called K9 Reading Buddies of the North Shore. The program, based in the Chicago suburbs, gives students practice reading to therapy dogs in a judgement-free environment.

This reading practice has had other benefits, too. Blake’s family noticed he doesn’t wear a hat when he reads to the dogs.

“It made me recognize that when he reads in front of the dog, he’s focused on the dog and the reading. He doesn’t have the anxiety,” said Blake’s mother, Heather. “It’s increased his confidence quite a bit.”

Sit. Stay. Roll over. Zoom?

Over 50,000 therapy dogs in the United States provide emotional support to people in hospitals, retirement homes, schools, and airports, reported National Geographic in 2018. During the COVID-19 pandemic, therapy dog programs across the country have reimagined their service models. Some bring their animals up to the windows of hospitals and retirement homes or parade their pets outside.

Some programs sent cardboard cutouts of their therapy animals to the places they visited before the pandemic. Others became pen pals with the people they used to see, said Billie Smith, executive director of The Alliance of Therapy Dogs. The organization certifies all the dogs involved in the K9 Reading Buddies group.

Typically, K9 Reading Buddies has 40 volunteers who visit schools and libraries, and about half of them have been doing virtual reading sessions. Students can now choose from among 22 dogs to schedule an online visit with.

“[The students] miss the physical touch. Being in the same room with a dog [can] lower blood pressure and reduce anxiety,” said Carole Yuster, executive director and founder of K9 Reading Buddies of the North Shore. “But you can tell they still get that reward. The kids are relaxed and want to read to the dog. And anytime that happens, that’s a plus.”

Sessions begin with the handler greeting the student and asking them their name and grade. The dogs wear red bandanas, a signal to them that they’re “at work” and need to stay calm. Then the child begins to read.

Children get excited to read to the dogs. It’s like they are a teacher and the dogs are their students. They hold picture books up to the webcam to show the animals and even withhold what they think are scary images “because they don’t want to upset the dog,” Yuster said.

The volunteers ask students to explain the story to the dog, which helps build reading comprehension skills.

Sessions usually end with the dogs performing a trick.

Online services were an adjustment, but they’ve allowed K9 Reading Buddies to connect with new students from across the country. And for dogs like Yuster’s puppy, Nala, who doesn’t travel well, virtual therapy gives them the flexibility to work from home.

“The reading programs took off fairly quickly with the virtual visits,” Smith said. “If this is something that was normal for them before the pandemic, then it is very helpful for them now.”

Soothing student stress

The pandemic has affected different students in different ways. Blake hasn’t been able to learn or socialize with other kids in a classroom like he’s used to. His older brother, Bennett, who entered middle school this school year, hasn’t had the chance to make new school friends.

“My initial fear was the academic loss during COVID-19,” Heather said. “But at the end of the day, the academic loss is secondary to the social-emotional wellness of these children.”

Social isolation is one of the things that can increase mental health struggles for children, according to the CDC. According to a recent report by CDC, the proportion of emergency department visits for children’s mental health concerns increased by 24% in 2020 for kids ages 5 to 11 and by 31% for ages 12 to 17.

Though interacting with a dog on-screen isn’t the same as playing with friends their age in real life, Heather said the K9 Reading Buddies virtual sessions have given her kids something to look forward to during the pandemic.

“It’s been a highlight of our week for a very long time,” she said.

Blake and his siblings weren’t involved with K9 Reading Buddies before COVID-19 but plan to attend in-person sessions, which are slowly starting up again. Heather said “there’s no doubt” the program has improved Blake’s reading.

“He was not willing to just sit down and read a book … Now, he will choose to read a book by himself,” Heather said. She’s quick to add, “He still loves to read to the dogs—that’s not over.”

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01Dec / 2020

Asthma Intervention Program Provides Emotional Support to Patients

Stock photo of two women wearing masks during a home health visit.

Gloria Seals has for the past 20 years seen firsthand how substandard living conditions can worsen asthma symptoms.

Seals, a community health worker for Asthma CarePartners (ACP) and Supervisor of Asthma Education at Sinai Urban Health Institute (SUHI), made house calls to patients with asthma to provide individualized health education. She and other community health workers taught patients how to manage their asthma, explained how to use the needed medical equipment, walked through patients’ homes to identify any environmental hazards that could worsen asthma symptoms, and demonstrated how to use scrubbing pads to patch holes in the walls to keep out pests.

“Some homes on the South and West sides [of Chicago] are just not livable,” Seals says. She has been in homes with mold, cockroaches, and mice, which are all common triggers for people with asthma.

Working with patients in their homes has shown Seals how the environment where people live can lead to repeated asthma episodes, and how stress and loneliness can worsen an illness.

The house calls ended in March when Seals adapted the program to a virtual platform. The virtual platform has allowed Seals to continue to counsel her patients and help prevent the spread of COVID-19 during the pandemic. Health workers also incorporated COVID-19 prevention information into the curriculum.

COVID-19 has hit communities of color in Chicago, like those on the South and West sides, particularly hard. Black and Hispanic people are also more likely to have asthma and other respiratory conditions, which can put a person at increased risk for severe illness from the virus that causes COVID-19.

According to CDC, people with moderate to severe asthma might be at higher risk of getting very sick from COVID-19. COVID-19 can affect the nose, throat, and lungs; cause an asthma attack; and possibly lead to pneumonia and acute respiratory disease. Disinfectants can also trigger an asthma attack.

At first, health workers were worried about how transitioning to virtual visits would affect patient care. Home visits were an important part of the program because they allowed health workers to interact in-person with patients and helped them identify allergens in and around the home.

What they found, though, was that patients depend on community health workers for more than education; they also look to them for emotional support. Community health workers are appreciated as trusted members of the neighborhoods they serve, and patients value their council, even when offered virtually.

“The social support community health workers provide has become really important now, especially for COVID-19 patients,” said Stacy Ignoffo, Director of Community Health Innovations at SUHI. “A familiar voice can give patients a greater sense of security during this crisis,” she added.

Other health experts agree. Dr. Louise Giles, a pediatric pulmonologist at the University of Chicago, said she has noticed an increased need in the community for mental and emotional health care and support.

“Families are extremely worried right now,” Dr. Giles said. “They are looking to providers for both information and emotional care.”

While telemedicine is not a substitute for in-person home visits, Seals is grateful she can still connect with her patients and serve as an additional source of knowledge and support during this time.

“ACP serves people who would not seek out this education on their own,” she said. “Regardless of format, having us come to them makes all the difference in the world.”

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, SUHI’s community health workers have become an essential source of education and emotional support for many patients. Their compassion and leadership in the face of adversity has built a well-informed, resilient community across the South and West Sides of Chicago.

ACP will remain virtual until an effective COVID-19 vaccine is developed. There is currently no vaccine to prevent COVID-19. The best way to prevent illness is to avoid being exposed to the virus.

Thanks in advance for your questions and comments on this Public Health Matters post. Please note that the CDC does not give personal medical advice. If you are concerned you have a disease or condition, talk to your doctor.

Have a question for CDC? CDC-INFO (http://www.cdc.gov/cdc-info/index.html) offers live agents by phone and email to help you find the latest, reliable, and science-based health information on more than 750 health topics.

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24Nov / 2020

Chicago Community Groups Unite to Help Neighbors During Pandemic

A picture-in-picture of women on a video conference.

My introduction to phone banking didn’t go as expected. I thought I would be giving advice to people, not getting it.

During one phone call, the older adult woman on the other end asked how I was doing. I admitted to being exhausted by graduate school. She advised me to do a little more praying and a lot more sleeping. Unscripted moments like those are a fringe benefit of working with Community Cares Illinois (IL).

Community Cares IL is a coalition of groups from across the Chicago area that came together to check in on their community members at greatest risk during the COVID-19 pandemic. They host weekly phone bank sessions during which dozens of virtual volunteers connect residents with needed resources to make it easier for them to shelter in place. The service started in March, during the first week of the Illinois stay-at-home order.

“That was the same week the first woman died [of COVID-19] in Chicago,” said Maureen Keane, who leads the coalition alongside Annie Williams and Nicole Miller. “We felt this sense of urgency, but it took us a little bit to get up and running because we wanted to do it well.”

Volunteer sessions take place every Tuesday afternoon via video chat. After a brief review of protocols, volunteers spend an hour clicking through the phone bank, dialing numbers, and using a script to ask community members if they need help getting groceries, medications, or anything else during the pandemic.

Over the summer, Community Cares IL worked with residents in Austin, a neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side whose population is nearly 80% Black. CDC data show that Black and Latino people are contracting the virus at nearly three times the rate of White people, and nearly five times as likely to be hospitalized once they have COVID-19.

After learning that Black people in every age group were also dying from the virus at about the same rate as White people a decade older, according to the Brookings Institution, Keane said she and the other organizers decided they needed to reach out to minorities across a greater age range.

“We bumped down the [age of residents we call] because Black people are dying at age 45 and at age 50,” she said.

To ensure volunteers can provide community members with as many resources as possible, the coalition’s leaders scoured the internet to compile an extensive guide. In just a few months, it has grown into a massive, 33-page document filled with information on everything from the location of food pantries and testing sites to debt relief programs and housing assistance.

“It’s not easy,” said Keane. “But at the same time, it’s important, so it doesn’t feel hard.”

The guide is updated whenever the availability of those resources changes or a resident expresses the need for something during a call that is not yet included. Oftentimes, their needs aren’t material.

“A lot of residents are just thankful that they got a phone call, even if they don’t necessarily need anything,” said 17-year-old Emma Zubak, who volunteers for Community Cares IL. “They’re thankful that they have someone to talk to, even if it was over the phone for five minutes.”

The leaders stressed that everyone has been impacted by the pandemic in some way and that volunteers get just as much out of the calls as those picking up the phone. It’s why every Tuesday afternoon session wraps up with an opportunity for volunteers to socialize with one another.

“The end is my favorite part because we get to share any unusual call we had, best practices that we picked up or connections we made,” said co-leader Annie Williams, adding that the sense of connectedness, albeit virtual, is what keeps volunteers coming back.

Miller said the most important part of their operation, besides the phone bank, is having such dedicated people who consistently show up and keep it going. She said Community Cares IL is fortunate, as a coalition of organizations, to have a large network of devoted people to depend on.

That will become even more important moving forward. The leaders expect the pandemic to worsen in the fall in conjunction with an uptick in flu cases and that the need for campaigns like this will grow as federal assistance dries up and smaller community groups must tap out.

“A lot of people have kind of thrown their hands up and said, ‘well, we can’t do anything,’” said Miller. “But that’s not true. We can call people, we can bring resources together and we can see each other’s smiling faces on video while we do it.”

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10Sep / 2020

Give & Take Bins Serve as Small-Scale Food Pantries

A person reaches into a plastic bin filled with nonperishable food and other supplies

In observance of National Preparedness Month, the Center for Preparedness and Response (CPR) will publish posts in September that highlight ways people and organizations are helping to “create community” where they live.

Customers stared at Beatriz Echeverría in the grocery store. She filled her cart with vegetable oil, rice, beans, and other foods, conscious of looking like a hoarder stocking up to weather the pandemic. By the time she and her son, Nacho Pavón, piled all their goods into their car, the haul filled the trunk.

But they weren’t hoarding. Echeverría and her son were redistributing the items around the city of Evanston, just north of Chicago, through a system of mini-food pantries housed in boxes called Give and Take Bins.

“This is a good, practical thing that you can do in your spare time,” said Echeverría, an Evanston resident. “You know it’s effective because you’re actually filling the bins and you’re actually going to the store to get the food.”

When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down much of the country in March, Evanston neighbors and activists created the network of bins to support growing needs in the community. These weather-proof containers placed on porches, in yards, and at schools are filled by volunteers who donate food, cleaning supplies, menstrual products, and other necessities. Anyone may take items from the box, free of charge.

Evanston, like Chicago, is located in Cook County, where more than one in 10 people were food insecure before the pandemic, according to 2018 data from Feeding America. Food insecurity spiked nationwide, however, as a result of COVID-19. Relative to predicted rates for March, food insecurity doubled in April and tripled in households with children, reported an analysis from the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University.

“I feel like the need is there,” said Stephanie Mendoza, a facilitator of the Give and Take Bins program. “There’s a huge need.”

The existing need grew as COVID-19 shut down some local food pantries run by seniors, a population that is at increased risk for severe illness from the virus. Some people couldn’t go to grocery stores, and those who could often encountered empty shelves, said Michele Hays, another program facilitator.

The Give and Take Bins were a “more nimble way” to get food and other necessities to neighbors in need, Hays said. Volunteers spread the word about these bins through a Facebook page that Mendoza advertised in local parenting, COVID-19 support, and Latinx Facebook groups. There’s also a Google map showing all the bins’ locations, and a QR code to the map is placed on some of the bins.

To find out what items people most needed, Hays conducted an informal poll in her mutual aid group and came up with a list of suggested donations. Volunteers may print that list and attach it to the bins. Now, with about 25 boxes placed around the city, a box is within “at least a few blocks’ walking distances for just about most people,” Mendoza said. Based on census data, Hays suggested locations for new bins, such as near the parking lot of the local high school.

Anyone may fill the bins; anyone may take from the bins. Volunteers emphasize stocking bins with culturally specific foods in certain areas.

“We would buy, I don’t know, like Sazonador, which is a typical Latin American seasoning. We would buy pinto beans. We would buy things that were very specific of certain groups,” Echeverría said. “People, if given a chance, they’ll take the foods they’re used to.”

While there’s a large need for food, Mendoza said the items that disappear quickest from the bin on her front porch are menstrual products, soap, and toilet paper. These can’t be bought with a SNAP card or Illinois Link card, and they’re often not found at food pantries, either.

“Folks who get food stamps can’t use that money to buy cleaning supplies. They can only use it for food,” said Alyce Barry, a volunteer who manages a box near her home.

Barry recalls starting a bin as soon as she heard about them. Though Hays said she’s received reports that bins are being used less, Barry said her bin is seeing more traffic now than it did earlier this year. She wishes, however, that there was a way to know for sure what the individuals using her bin need, rather than being so distant.

“Before the pandemic, I was of the opinion that ways like this of helping the community weren’t a very good idea because they are so detached,” Barry said. “Racism and a lot of other social ills are the results of people who have being distant from the people who don’t, and this is just another way of being distant. But unfortunately, with the pandemic, that all changed.”

Volunteers also keep their distance to respect the privacy of their neighbors who use the boxes. Barry hasn’t spoken to anyone who uses her bin, because she doesn’t want to embarrass them. Mendoza once saw a family taking items from her bin as she was arriving home, but she said she kept driving down the street as if the house wasn’t hers.

Hays and Mendoza said this program has grown “organically,” fueled by the passion, generosity, and ingenuity of volunteers and community members who often solve problems without supervision to keep everything running smoothly. They insist the program doesn’t require a lot of central coordination and that it’s easy to participate in something like this.

“Anybody can do it. You don’t even have to be in Evanston,” Hays said. “You can do it wherever you are just with stuff that you have in-house — whatever the bin is that you have in your basement that you store stuff in.”

Once boxes are set up, volunteers don’t even need extra income to be what Hays and Mendoza call a “box fairy,” or someone who fills a bin with donations, unbeknownst to the facilitators.

“To be a box fairy, you don’t even necessarily have to buy things, you can just go around and take stuff out of the [bins] that are full and put them into the ones that are empty,” Hays said.

The Give and Take Bins program isn’t without its flaws — occasionally, bins go missing and have to be replaced. Most bins hold only non-perishables, though there are a couple of coolers. Fresh food placed in the bins often spoils, and volunteers remove those items.

Still, the bins are having an impact: They continue to be emptied — and filled. Volunteers see the impact in small ways. Hays met a man at the local homelessness organization drop-in center and he said he had used the box at her house. Once, her neighbor came over to take a few things as she was filling the bin. Someone wrote a thank-you note on a torn-off corner of a shopping bag and left it in a box.

In early July, Mendoza’s children left some chalk on her front steps. When she went outside, she noticed someone had written a chalk message on the lid of her bin: “Gracias.” Finding that, she said, was “just heartwarming.”