Roseville brings four-legged help in to focus on firefighter mental health
ROSEVILLE, Minn. — The Roseville Fire Department has added a new four-legged member to its team, and it's all part of better tackling mental health.
At just 10 pounds and 9 ½ weeks, Ashes is easily the smallest and youngest member of the team.
"Ashes is our new therapy comfort K-9," said Ashes' handler and Roseville's Assistant Chief Neil Sjostrom.
The silver lab is expected to grow to eight times as big as she is now, to about 80 pounds.
Her current hobbies include chewing, playing and sleeping.
She's just the fourth therapy dog to join a fire department in Minnesota and was brought in thanks to community donations.
"Her primary mission is to be a part of our mental health program for the fire department and the firefighters," said Sjostrom.
Ashes will soon work with first responder K-9 trainers Soldier's 6, not just for obedience training, but also getting more comfortable with social interactions.
"She's already been quite a hit in the week and a half that she's been here," said Sjostrom.
Ashes will assume her full role in a little over a year, where she'll help firefighters work through the stress of dealing with the critical incidents they experience, through the calming effect dogs like her can bring.
"Even if it's not a critical or highly stressful day, to still have that relaxing time and sort of build that resilience and bring their overall stress levels down in between sort of the normal everyday activities," said Sjostrom.
The idea is to also eventually have Ashes respond to people in crisis in the community, for instance, families dealing with the trauma of a fire.
"Ashes can be a part of not only spending some time not only with the parents, but also with the children that might be present, just to help them relax from what's a very critical or traumatic incident for them," said Sjostrom.
Sjostrom said departments like Brooklyn Center have seen the benefits of therapy dogs first-hand.
"Certainly the benefits have been present, both from a community standpoint, as well as from a department standpoint," he said.