Individuals may find it difficult to fathom how they can help in the face of a disaster half a world away, like the wildfires ravaging Australia. Yet it becomes easier when you can focus on a single image — an orphaned baby kangaroo, for instance.
Experts estimate that as many as 1 billion animals will die in the fires, and countless others will be displaced. Animal rescue organizations took to Facebook in early January, requesting donations such as pouches for rescued baby marsupials, including kangaroos, koalas, wombats, and wallabies. That led to a light bulb moment for Gabrielle Skinner, a mental health associate at Princeton House Behavioral Health’s outpatient site in Hamilton, N.J. She proposed a creative project for patients to craft pouches for the baby marsupials, also known as joeys.
Not only would the joeys benefit, she reasoned, but patients would get a real-life opportunity to practice contribution, a skill emphasized in dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) as a positive way to distract oneself from negative thoughts or emotions. She took the idea and ran with it — getting fabric and making the joey pouches, and then working with patients to decorate them with positive messages for the rescue workers.
Her colleagues and supervisors at Hamilton were so moved by the thoughtfulness of the activity that they spread the word throughout the organization. Soon, Skinner was receiving encouragement and kudos from throughout Princeton House.
“I am so thankful to work at a company that fosters this kind of creativity and provides an opportunity for patients to practice skills such as this in a very real way,” Skinner said.