Priya Sharma and Kayleigh Busch met working in the field of mental health and substance use support in Victoria. The pair say they consistently noticed a need among the population they serve.
“Time and time again, we work with individuals who show that they’re motivated and they’re putting in all of this work to wanna attend a treatment facility and then last minute, they’re having to either delay their bed date, decline it, or sometimes leave treatment early, just because they can’t find reliable and safe pet care,” said Busch.
Enter Recovery Tails Society. Founded by Sharma and Busch, the local community non-profit offers free, temporary pet care to people attending addiction treatment.
“It’s essentially providing safe pet services, which is daycare boarding, any vet concerns that might be showing up, their regular checkups and grooming…for the flexible timelines that individuals have when they’re navigating these concerns,” said Sharma.
At the time of the interview, the organization had 17 confirmed fosters available, according to Busch.
Sharma says she wants people in the general public to understand that there are a lot of barriers in place to accessing addiction treatment.
Twix is one of the animals being fostered by Recovery Tails Society
“It’s not just as easy as asking for help and tomorrow you’re going to treatment,” she said. “Our systems put individuals through so many assessments and processes before they can even get to treatment programs. It is a very, very difficult task.”
She says oftentimes underlying issues people may be facing related to a lack of safe housing aren’t solved by the treatment process.
“Even if somebody goes through this whole process and makes it to a treatment program after waiting for months on a wait list. A lot of the times housing is not figured out for them, right? And so they come back to similar situations, abusive households sometimes, and really difficult scenarios where they again, have to start from scratch and have a really difficult time maintaining their sobriety.”
Lab Nova is one of the animals being fostered by Recovery Tails Society
In the time since they soft launched Recovery Tails, Sharma says they’ve been able to support two people and their pets successfully through the recovery process.
“It’s been really beautiful to see the other side of it. A lot of the times we’re taking a really big stressor off of the shoulders of the individual.”
While Sharma and Bush both live in the Victoria area, Recovery Tails offers support across Vancouver Island. Busch says they also have contacts on the Gulf Islands, and are receiving inquiries from people interested in fostering in Vancouver.
Anyone looking for more information is encouraged to get in contact through email or phone, which can be found on the group’s social media pages.
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