The Southern Cross | August 2024

When Liz Sparks enters a room, it lights up with smiles, thanks largely to the menagerie of animals accompanying her.

That’s the case when she hosts sessions as part of Centacare’s Animal Wellbeing Program. On any given day, she is joined by Alfie the gentle Border Collie, Bear the Aussie Shepherd (Centacare’s wellbeing dog), joeys, guinea pigs, lizards, a lamb and a cheeky Chihuahua called Chachi.

The program, in its fourth year, provides wellbeing support aimed to improve engagement of people with complex needs in educational, disability or community-based settings.

Liz (pictured) currently visits approximately eight schools regularly throughout the school term and facilitates sessions during the school holidays with different programs and organisations.

Interaction with animals is proven to help people manage stress, anxiety, depression, and feelings of loneliness and social isolation.

Centacare staff say wellbeing dog Bear has a unique knack of understanding a person’s needs.

“Bear is such a calming and fun-natured animal,” said Wellbeing Support Services manager Jessica Hickey.

“He has an incredible ability to respond in different ways to the many situations and people he comes into contact with. When Bear is with very young children and people with disabilities, he is calm and gentle but when with older students, he loves to play sports. Students who are unable to sit still or concentrate are seen sitting quietly, gently patting or feeding a joey.  Students who display aggression and anger with the world, stay still and cautious while handling a stick insect.”

Alfie is a particularly well-natured match with babies and young people with a disability.

“He’s super sensitive,” Liz says.

“I’ve never, never come across a dog quite like him.”

Liz has a great deal of experience with animals. She currently lives on a 300-acre farm at Mount Pleasant and grew up with parents who farmed and rescued native animals in need of care.

She says the benefits spread far and wide.

“It has a huge impact on kids, especially the kids people think are violent and aggressive. It’s a huge thing for adults to see them showing empathy, kindness and love towards something.”

Liz, who started in flow case management, is quick to add this is not a ‘petting’ zoo. Participants are provided with opportunities to safely interact with animals with a view that animals can contribute positively to a person’s behavioural, emotional, and verbal distress and assist them to build self-awareness and self-regulation skills.

Clients with complex needs can benefit by the increased awareness of the importance of calm communication, positive body language and gentle handling. It has also been shown to be effective in supporting young people to improve their learning outcomes.

“We are trying to build on that empathy,” she said.

“If you can show empathy and be loving and nurturing to a little animal, how does that not translate through people? It’s about building on those skills.”

Animal Wellbeing provides sessions to clients in school, community and home settings. It also offers sessions for organisations and corporations focused on improving staff wellbeing, self-care, emotional regulation, reducing worker burnout and developing team culture.

For enquiries and bookings, contact animalwellbeing@centacare.org.au or 8159 1400. centacare.org.au