Sky View Farm is a 55-acre ranch that shows love and compassion through animal therapy.
Castle Rock, Colorado — The tranquil scenery of 55-acre Sky View Farm in northern Douglas County helps teens cope with their mental health.
The farm is just off Interstate 25 and Happy Canyon Road. Wendy Ingraham Owned and managed by my husband and I. We have chickens, ducks, cats, dogs, goats and 49 horses.
They opened up land to schools as a way to be more involved and provide mental health resources through animal therapy.
Ingraham said she wants to support the mental health of young people in her community.
“I have a daughter who is 14 now,” Ingraham said. “And like me [dug] After doing some more research on suicide and mental health, depression and anxiety, I learned that Douglas County has one of the highest rates of suicide attempts in the country. ”
Ingraham and her husband purchased the farm in 2017 and named it Sky View for its expansive views of farmland and front range.
She is also the founder of a foundation called Robbins Nest Charity. This non-profit organization provides equine-assisted therapy to help treat young people experiencing depression, anxiety, and/or trauma-related symptoms. She started the foundation after losing three of her closest friends to depression.
“It was a concept brought in four years ago, three and a half years ago, because three friends committed suicide within three months,” Ingraham said. “I thought this would be a really great place to start my journey and help people in our community with their mental health.”
According to Children’s Hospital Colorado, suicide is the leading cause of death for children ages 10 to 14 in the state, higher than accidental deaths. One-third of her Colorado high school students say they feel sad and hopeless all the time, 17% admit to having suicidal thoughts, and 7% have attempted suicide.
Ingraham shares the farm with other mental health resources Mustard Seed Ranch and The Aspen Effect. The Aspen Effect is a charitable non-profit organization that provides horse and animal therapy and life experience programs to young people. The goal is to make animal therapy for mental health more accessible.
“We are open to other mental health foundations within our community,” Ingraham said. “It takes multiple foundations to get the job done. It requires collaboration and letting them do the work is just as important as our work here.”
Mallory Niklas, Program Director, Mustard Seed Ranch, said: “Just take the stigma of this mental health blanket out there and know that mental health treatment doesn’t have to look one way.”
Niklas is a farm therapist. She said that traditional talk therapy can sometimes be difficult for teens to overlook or open up to, but having an honest big animal next to them can help them reflect on themselves and be honest. must be
“It may not give you profound answers or come together in thought every time, but you can see their wheels turning and starting to build a relationship,” Niklas said. . “We humans are just wired to connect in some way, whether it connects to other people or to something else.”
Niklas said the number of mental health cases has increased over the past three years.
“It’s something we’ve seen for a long time, and COVID, isolation and lack of connection have made it more prominent,” she said. I think you should create a comfortable space and find other avenues that might work or reach your child.”
The farm helps students like Evan Spound, a senior at Arapahoe High School. He looked to Robbins his Nest Foundation as a way to deal with PTSD. In May 2019, Evan survived his STEM high school shooting at Highlands Ranch.
“On May 7, 2019, a shooter at my school opened fire in a classroom across the hallway, killing a child who was trying to escape and protect everyone else.“There was one person in my classroom who was shot through a wall,” Spond said. “At that moment, I didn’t know what to think. I was pretty frozen, but looking back, it was a really difficult experience for me.”
For Evan, Sky View Farm is helping him cope.
“I feel like I have PTSD. It’s always easy,” he said. “I think you have a lot of thoughts running through your head at the same time, and just being there calms them down.”
Feedback from stories like Evan sustains Ingraham’s mission to be proactive in the community on mental health.
“It affects our communities, it affects our societies, it affects our world. We can’t change everything at once, but we can at least do what we can.” Ingram said. “It’s hard work here, and there’s a lot of hard work. It costs money to keep animals and farms, so there’s a lot of doubt at times financially, but that kind of story.” Nothing in the world will stop you when you hear
Click here for more information on Sky View Farm and Robin’s Nest Charity. https://robinsnestcharity.org/
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