Menu
Log in
 


  

Society for Healthcare

Volunteer Leaders

Log in

Pet Therapy

  • Wednesday, September 06, 2017 11:14 AM
    Message # 5065859
    Deleted user

    Do you have a successful Pet Therapy program?  And what makes it work? 

  • Thursday, September 07, 2017 9:30 AM
    Reply # 5068212 on 5065859
    Deleted user

    At Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital, we have a successful Pet Therapy Program through our Child Life office with about 25 dogs currently.  Each dog owner has an escort who stays with the dog owner/dog during the entire visit in the hospital, asking questions and making preparations for the dog to enter the patients' rooms.  Child Life interviews each dog/owner/escort, receives necessary paperwork on each dog and makes the decision who will be accepted.  Volunteer Resources processes the owners and escorts.  I'm happy to provide our Pet Therapy dog owner and escort service guidelines.

  • Thursday, September 07, 2017 10:10 AM
    Reply # 5068255 on 5065859
    Deleted user

    Our Pet Therapy program does ok...we do not have a lot of dogs at this time but we do have a few...about 5 active at this time.  They self schedule and visit at will.  I have a therapy dog policy if you would like me to send it you.

  • Thursday, September 07, 2017 2:00 PM
    Reply # 5068736 on 5065859
    Anonymous

    We have a very active pet visitation program at Nemours Children's Hopsital with about 30 volunteer teams.  It is the most popular program at the hospital/clinic.  Our teams visit patients/families/associates most everywhere in the hospital/clinic other than isolation rooms, cafeteria and surgery.  We have recently participated in a research project that looked at volunteers’ perception of their involvement with a pet visitation program, the factors that influence their decision to volunteer and what benefits the volunteer derives from their experience.   I will be happy to share the results from the research project once it is published. 

    Last modified: Thursday, September 07, 2017 2:02 PM | Anonymous
  • Thursday, September 07, 2017 2:26 PM
    Reply # 5068804 on 5065859
    Deleted user

    I can say "ditto" to Ranetta and Jill.  We have a very robust pet therapy program with teams visiting in about 15 different areas and sites.

    Here is the secret about getting pet therapy in new areas of the hospital, find a doctor or member of a doctor's family who has a pet and encourage that person to do the training.  It is how we got into some areas that were not that excited about the program.

    We have a doctor's precious pooch pet therapy team of with his wife and neighbor as the handlers.

    This is a great article about Casper and Children's Atlanta.  I have seen him at work.  He can ride the elevator by himself.

    https://www.choa.org/donors-and-volunteers/volunteer/day-in-the-life

     

     

     

  • Thursday, September 07, 2017 2:27 PM
    Reply # 5068806 on 5065859
    Deleted user

    Jill,

    I would love to see the results :)

  • Monday, September 11, 2017 3:11 PM
    Reply # 5074879 on 5065859

    I have a pet therapy program that is only 1 year old. I have 8 teams (pet and handler) and some visit regularly while some only come when called. Our program is very restrictive in that the dogs must all have certification through a recognized group before we accept them. The only groups we recognize are Delta Society and TDI.  The pet team can only visit patients if the doctor has placed an order on the patient's chart saying it is needed.  We can visit the waiting rooms for surgery, dialysis, and oncology.  

    I only get a call from a doctor's order about once a month. The other visits are in our general areas. We have found that the employees enjoy the visits as much as the patients and a few of our teams regularly visit the office buildings.

Have Questions?

Contact us at shvl.email@gmail.com

Powered by Wild Apricot Membership Software