Shelter Worker’s Experiences and Perceptions of Capacity for Care (C4C)

ABSTRACT

Capacity for Care (C4C) is a shelter management strategy which utilizes managed intake to optimize in-shelter populations based on housing capacity and available resources. The purpose of this study was to 1) understand staff experiences using managed intake, 2) explore staff perceptions of how the C4C model has been regarded by other staff at their facility, and 3) explore the response of community members who are attempting to relinquish their cats, as perceived by the staff who are communicating with cat owners and scheduling relinquishment. Participants recruited from shelters who practiced C4C participated in a semi-structured interview and completed a written survey to share their experiences and perceptions of C4C. Based on the perceptions of the participants, evidence suggests the waitlist may decrease the admission of owned cats to the shelter as a result of advising cat owners about alternatives to relinquishment. The findings suggest that more research is needed to understand the potential impacts of managed intake, as an element of C4C, on the welfare of cats in the community who are waiting to be admitted to a shelter.

KEYWORDS:

• Capacity for Care
• shelter population management
• qualitative research
• semi-structured interviews

Acknowledgments

The researchers would like to thank the participants for their support, and contributions to this work. The researchers would also like to acknowledge Humane Canada for providing their support in aiding with participant recruitment, and especially Lisa Veit who provided critical insights into the sheltering sector and the study design and also provided technical editing of the manuscript.

Disclosures of interest

Shane Bateman is currently a member of the board of directors at GHS, but receives no financial gain from this role and as a board member has no influence over the decisions of the executive director regarding research activities that take place within the shelter. Samantha Hobson was employed at GHS as an Animal Care Attendant during the research period. This position has no influence over scheduling surrenders or research activities. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.