One Health

🐾 For someone in recovery, a pet can be more than a companion-they can be a source of stability, routine, connection, and purpose. But what happens when the systems meant to support recovery don't make room for that bond?

Join us for Recover Together: How Pets Support Substance Use Recovery, a One Health conversation exploring why pet-inclusive approaches matter in recovery services and community support.

📅 October 7, 2026
⏰ 3:00 p.m. ET
💻 Zoom

Featuring Yvette Myers of The Empowerment Center and Richard Brown, this webinar will explore the role pets can play throughout recovery and what communities can do to better support people and their pets together.

It's an important One Health question: Are our systems designed to support the whole family-including the animals people depend on?

👉 Register: https://tiny.utk.edu/RecoverTogether

💬 What examples have you seen in your organization or community where pets have supported someone's recovery-or where a lack of pet-inclusive services created a barrier?

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T' Fisher, Director of Operations
Center for Pet Family Well-Being
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This is something that we are exploring as well. We are a new non-profit that focuses on the spaying/neutering, vaccines and welfare of the pets within the homeless community. We partner with a street outreach organization that has been around for 6 years now and one thing that she has never been able to find a solution for is housing for the dogs when the owner makes the decision to go to rehab. Just in the last 2 weeks, we have been contacted by hospital case managers, asking for help with the dog of a patient that is admitted but there is no one that can care for their dog. There are very, very little resources in Oklahoma that help with this. None of which include patients in rehab/treatment. Even the cheapest boarding place comes to almost $1,000 dollars for a 3 month stay. Which is a lot for small organizations like us. There are so many members of the unhoused community that have talked about going to treatment but they are scared of what will happen to their dog. Thankfully, we have a family member that has a boarding facility on her property and she would allow us to add an additional structure for this purpose if we can get the funding for it. So this topic here, could really help provide some one to information and insight needed for this goal of ours.

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Samantha Fletcher
President
Spay the Streets Foundation
Oklahoma City OK
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I will be unable to "attend" your seminar 😒. I know that more & more facilities are allowing pets & there is a Directory that lists them. There are also places that specifically board pets for folks in treatment. When I worked as a substance Abuse Counselor @ a residential rehab in NH, there was a place in VT that would take pets (dogs & cats) for whatever fees the person could afford. On Sundays (family visiting day), volunteers or family members would bring the pet during visiting. As a Counselor I brought my own dog(s) to work as it did help the residents - the way it does for other stressful situations. Hoping that more places like the one in VT now exist but I haven't kept up with that.  It would be a tremendous help for residents in treatment. It's the same w/Domestic Violence. Many women (& sometimes men) will not leave their abusers because of their pets. Red Rover set a goal of helping 25% of all shelters be pet friendly, 25 by 25. While we didn't meet the goal, we are still working it & 21 or 22% of DV shelters are now pet friendly. Red Rover will help pay boarding fees if that's what it takes to get someone out of dangerous situation (funds permitting).  Maybe the same kind of initiative should be started with Substance Abuse Rehab? 

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Laurie Methven
Volunteer
Twin Counties Humane Society, Virginia
Red Rover, Easten Region
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So good to see this being discussed. We've had a recent case where we were asked to foster a dog (to reunite) after rehab and happily the place has agreed for the owner to take the beloved dog with them. In the meantime we have matched the relationship to a wonderful elderly male volunteer who has been able to provide care for hospital appointments etc the trusted warm relationship that has developed between them is so very special. 

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Bin Johnston
CEO/Animal Companionship Practitioner
Our Special Friends
United Kingdom
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