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Updated: December 9, 2019 / 2019 Health Care Heroes Honorees

Cole and man’s best friend provide mental-health support during times of tragedy

Brad Cole and his dog Spartacus (shown center) travel to active-shooter and other traumatic scenes to help victims cope with tragedy.
By Karen Ali

 

Category: Volunteer

Brad Cole, Executive Director/All-Hazards Psychological Trauma Responder, K9 First Responders

When the Sandy Hook mass shooting occurred in 2012, leaving 20 children and six staff members dead, Brad Cole knew he and his dog, an American Akita named Spartacus, could help.

Back then, Cole and Spartacus were volunteering at Yale New Haven Hospital, visiting patients who were suffering. Cole knew firsthand the healing benefits of pets.

At the time of the Sandy Hook shooting, Cole’s office was in nearby Southbury, so he went to the site of the tragedy to help.

The first responders and community were overwhelmed and devastated. As crisis teams assembled, Cole introduced himself, asking if they needed help connecting with students or teachers. The crisis teams were amenable to Spartacus being on hand and let Cole and his dog interact with the shattered community.

After Sandy Hook, Cole was requested at the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013, and on the scene of the 2014 killing of high school student Maren Sanchez of Milford. He began researching the concept of a trauma-response dog used by trained mental-health professionals.

“I learned while there are several therapy-dog groups that have volunteers who visit after a tragedy, there was no group that provides pro-active crisis mental-support services utilizing dogs on the scene and immediately afterward that is incorporated into the response and recovery plans,” Cole said. “I had the ability and connections to create something that can help people. I also realized that if I did not do it, who would?”

Cole founded Connecticut nonprofit K9 First Responders and over the years has expanded the all-volunteer organization tremendously.

He’s the organization’s executive director and an All-Hazards Psychological Trauma Responder, which means he’s trained to respond to disasters, including natural disasters, fires, radiological events, pandemics and active-shooter incidents.

His presence has been felt statewide.

“I realized that I needed to formalize as a nonprofit and expand the number of people who can provide the same type of support to those in need,” said Cole, a private investigator and former special police officer in Massachusetts.

Initially, the nonprofit consisted of just Cole and Spartacus and they were only known in Connecticut, but over the years, Cole has been adding trained handlers and dogs.

He now has 35 teams and 40 volunteers.

“Today, we serve 115-plus agencies and schools across seven states,’’ Cole said.

His teams have responded to multiple tragedies, including the 2017 Las Vegas concert shooting, the Parkland, Fla., high school shooting (2018), and the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting (2018).

Cole said his organization had 44 deployments last year over 63 days.

Cole stressed the dogs are different than therapy dogs in that they arrive at the scene with a handler during, or soon after a traumatic event occurs. Therapy dogs visit after the person has already been traumatized.

“K9 First Responders volunteers are experienced and specifically trained in providing crisis mental-health support and the trauma dogs are a resource supporting their efforts,” Cole said. “Dogs promote trust and non-judgmental interactions. The handlers use a variety of crisis mental-health intervention techniques to shepherd those impacted along the path to the next phase of mental-health support while supporting building their personal resilience.”

Cole said his nonprofit is unique in the United States.

“No other agency does what we do,” he said.

The team — handler and the dog — help make traumatic events less severe, so the long-term effects aren’t as debilitating, Cole said. They also try to reach traumatized victims before any negative “changes” occur emotionally or physically.

“Trauma injures one’s psyche. It’s a medical issue, both emotionally and physically,” Cole said.

Also, the dogs can help the traumatized person begin to trust the handler, who can then share resources to help individuals work through the tragic event, said Jen Adams, a K9 first responder senior handler, who frequently works with Cole when they get deployed.

Adams said there are times when trauma victims aren’t receptive to hearing from the handler until the dog bridges the gap.

“The dogs help the victims of trauma open up,” Adams said. “It’s not about skipping in with a cute dog, saying ‘Do you want to pet my dog.’ ”

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