Doors Wide Open: Engaging with Human and Social Service Providers to Increase Access to Care for Animals and People - On-demand

Recorded On: 03/18/2025

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Doors Wide Open is a series of short discussions about practical solutions that organizations are using to address barriers to accessing pet care and resources in their communities.

Human social services and healthcare organizations can be critical partners with animal welfare in intake diversion/surrender prevention.

This session focuses on:
1. Understanding the types of human services typically encountered in animal welfare work
2. Quickly raising awareness of common ground and shared goals for collaboration around human and animal welfare
3. Offering simple strategies to engage in ongoing relationships with key human service providers.

Guest Speaker: Janet Hoy-Gerlach, Director of Veterinary Social Work at Open Door Veterinary Collective

Earn continuing education credit from The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement towards 1.0 CAWA CEs. This webinar has also been pre-approved for 1.0 continuing education credits by the National Animal Care & Control Association (NACA).

Visit Maddie's Pet Forum to comment, follow a discussion or ask questions: https://forum.maddiesfund.org/...

keywords Doors Wide Open, Open Door Veterinary Collective, human social services and animal welfare

Janet Hoy-Gerlach, PhD, LISW-S

Associate Professor, University of Toledo School of Social Justice

Dr. Janet Hoy-Gerlach has extensive experience as a social work practitioner in the public mental health service system and is an avid advocate for the inclusion of human-animal interaction considerations within social work practice. Her current research is focused on: benefits of the human-animal bond; facilitators of mental health recovery among individuals living with mental illness; and the use of qualitative research to inform intervention research. She is on the board of the Toledo Area Humane Society (TAHS), where she developed and supervises MSW internship placements that facilitate benefits of human-animal interaction. She helped develop the TAHS Hope and Recovery Pet Program (HARP), which places shelter animals as Emotional Support Animals (ESAs); this is one of the only such programs in the United States. Dr. Hoy provides expert witness testimony for the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Department on benefits of human-animal interaction.