Therapy program generates personal joy while spreading comfort to others

By Lynne Conner For Chronicle Media
Chris Wallen (in bed), a volunteer with the Paws for Healing program at OSF SAMC simulates a visit with Indy, a Belgian Tervuren and her handler, Judy Olson. (Photo by Lynne Conner/for Chronicle Media)

Chris Wallen (in bed), a volunteer with the Paws for Healing program at OSF SAMC simulates a visit with Indy, a Belgian Tervuren and her handler, Judy Olson. (Photo by Lynne Conner/for Chronicle Media)

Man’s best friend has become patients’ best friend at two Rockford hospitals through their therapy dog programs.

Paws 4 Healing at OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center and Caring Canines at SwedishAmerican Health System bring specially trained dogs and their volunteer handlers to patient rooms on a rotating basis. Scientific studies have proven that therapy dog programs help patients in the following ways: reducing anxiety, depression, isolation, boredom and loneliness during a hospital stay. Therapy dogs have also been shown to positively impact a patient’s overall emotional well-being therefore increasing their ability to recover from an illness or surgery. The therapy dog visits at OSF and SwedishAmerican can be requested by the patient, the patient’s family, visiting clergy or a medical professional.

Paws 4 Healing at OSF is headed up by nurse Theresa Geraci, who started the program as a work leadership project.

“I belong to the Northern Illinois Weimaraner Club … many people in the club would talk about their dogs being therapy dogs and how they would take their dogs to visit hospitals and nursing homes. I thought I would love to be able to do that at OSF,” she said.

Chris Wallen (in bed), a volunteer with the Paws for Healing program at OSF SAMC simulates a visit with Indy, a Belgian Tervuren and her handler, Judy Olson. (Photo by Lynne Conner/for Chronicle Media)

Chris Wallen (in bed), a volunteer with the Paws for Healing program at OSF SAMC simulates a visit with Indy, a Belgian Tervuren and her handler, Judy Olson. (Photo by Lynne Conner/for Chronicle Media)

Following the therapy dog program at Edwards Hospital in Elgin, Geraci started the OSF program in 2008.

“Doing this leadership project helped me find evidence-based research showing that there truly were medical benefits for patients who were visited by therapy dogs or pets,” she said.

There are about 45 dogs and volunteer handlers who currently visit patients at OSF and the program is always looking to expand. There are two open calls each year for volunteers interested in the Paws 4 Healing program. Geraci notes a special distinction of the dog therapy program at OSF.

“We are the only Rockford hospital that actually trains the dogs for our program. I’m a nurse, not a dog trainer … So we have Sue Jacobs, a professional dog trainer working with us. Sue is the one who leads the dog-training part of our program, while I manage the volunteer handlers,” she said. “Sue has been training dogs for 15 years and she has helped register over 500 therapy dog teams in the Chicago area and in Northern Illinois.”

Having a certified dog trainer working with the OSF Paws for Healing program means that only the most qualified dogs make the cut.

Jack Irvin, a hospital escort at SAHS takes a break to pet Willow, a therapy dog in the Caring Canine program.  Willow's handler is Jim Mundinger. (Photo by Lynne Conner/for Chronicle Media)

Jack Irvin, a hospital escort at SAHS takes a break to pet Willow, a therapy dog in the Caring Canine program. Willow’s handler is Jim Mundinger. (Photo by Lynne Conner/for Chronicle Media)

“Sue is a tester for the Bright and Beautiful therapy dog program, so when the dogs come in with their owners they are tested on obedience and temperament to see if they have the right levels of these qualities to become therapy dogs,” Geraci said. “If the dogs pass these tests, then they become registered with Bright and Beautiful. This provides insurance and support for the therapy dog.”

The dogs are tested on whether they can sit on command, lie down on command and get along with other dogs and humans. The dogs should not be easily startled, either.

There is a two-step “temperament testing” process for dog owners interested in having their dog in the therapy program. After an initial meet and greet with Geraci, the dogs are observed by Jacobs to see if they fit the criteria to continue with training. A few weeks ago, three out of a group of five dogs were invited back to OSF for a Saturday afternoon of intense training before being allowed to visit patients. The open call for therapy dog training happens two to three times per year after an initial phone interview with Geraci. The next open call is set for late January or early February of 2017.

According to Geraci, no dog breed is excluded from consideration for the Paws 4 Healing program.

Jim Mundinger of Durand and his dog, Willow are volunteers in the Caring Canines Program at SwedishAmerican Health System. (Photo by Lynne Conner/for Chronicle Media)

Jim Mundinger of Durand and his dog, Willow are volunteers in the Caring Canines Program at SwedishAmerican Health System. (Photo by Lynne Conner/for Chronicle Media)

“We have a lot of easy-going breeds in the program like Labradors, golden retrievers, Shelties; dogs that get along well with other dogs and really like people,” she said. “However, it is the particular personality of a dog that matters more than the breed itself. My dog, Stella is a Weimaraner and she is a therapy dog. There are very few Weimaraners that are therapy dogs because they are high-energy,” Geraci said. “There was an Akita in our program until he passed away. Akitas are known as being an aloof dog and not liking strangers; Kane loved people, but he was not your typical Akita.”

The therapy dogs at OSF and SwedishAmerican not only visit hospital patients, but also patients at each hospital’s cancer center, the Heart Hospital at Swedes and the Center for Health at OSF. There are some floors and hospital areas where the dogs are not permitted.

“We are not allowed to visit rooms where patients are immuno-compromised, we can’t visit the ICU or go into isolation rooms where people are on MRSA or c-diff precautions because we don’t want to spread anything from room to room,” Geraci said.

Before and after a therapy dog visit, patients must use hand sanitizer to help prevent spreading germs.

Claudia Aschbrenner, the Caring Canine assistant for the dog therapy program at SwedishAmerican Health System said that when the program started in 2010, the dog therapy teams only visited the hospital’s center for mental health. In the last six years, though, dog therapy visits have expanded to other floors of the hospital and even to special visits with hospital staff.

“We have 29 dogs and 27 wonderful human volunteers who bring the dogs in. Two of our volunteers have tested with two of their own dogs, so they can take turns and bring either dog in to the hospital … .” Aschbrenner said. “We have a great variety of dogs from a little six pound Papillon up to our biggest dog, a 150-pound New Foundland.”

The Caring Canines are always welcomed visitors in SwedishAmerican’s other medical facilities.

Rasmussen College nursing students, Anna Dobbs (seated) and Kathryn Davis visit with Willow in the lobby of the Heart Hospital at SAHS. (Photo by Lynne Conner/for Chronicle Media)

Rasmussen College nursing students, Anna Dobbs (seated) and Kathryn Davis visit with Willow in the lobby of the Heart Hospital at SAHS. (Photo by Lynne Conner/for Chronicle Media)

“We do visit various offices within the health system. Our IT department (information technologies) is in the Wight Center across the street and we attended one of their lunch and learn meetings … .” Aschbrenner said. “We made a visit to our offices at the (old Rockford) Plaza location. Our fellow associates there had recently endured many personal losses within their families and needed the love and attention of the Caring Canines, so we stopped there to visit and hopefully brightened their day,” she said.

Aschbrenner complimented the 12 different Caring Canine teams that visited the Plaza offices for orchestrating the event on short notice.

Jim Mundinger of Durand and his dog Willow are Caring Canine volunteers at SwedishAmerican.

He said that his involvement in the program grew out of a desire to “give back to the community” during his retirement years. Mundinger relays an especially poignant story of visiting a youngster with extensive injuries, “I went in to see this child who immediately hugged my dog as a way of remembering their family dog who had been put to sleep. This kid was just hugging my dog and crying which made me cry. My dog and I continued our visits until this child was discharged. What a sweet kid,” he said.

Christine Diebold and her dog, Cinna have just completed training in the Paws 4 Healing program at OSF. Diebold has first-hand experience in seeing the benefits of therapy dog visits.

Pooch pouch — Volunteers with the Paws for Healing program at OSF SAMC carrysupplies for their patient visits in this pouch. (Photo by Lynne Conner/for Chronicle Media)

Pooch pouch — Volunteers with the Paws for Healing program at OSF SAMC carrysupplies for their patient visits in this pouch. (Photo by Lynne Conner/for Chronicle Media)

“Five years ago, my Mom was diagnosed with Stage 4B endometrial cancer. She had to be away from her dog on the weekends while she was being treated at the hospital and it was very hard on her. The therapy dogs would come in, it would mean everything to her and it would get her through the weekend,” Diebold said. “She would take the therapy dog cards home and put them on the refrigerator. My Mom has since passed and my Dad still has the therapy dog cards on their refrigerator because those visits meant so much to her. So, Cinna and I want to pay it forward and bring some joy and comfort into the patients’ lives.”

Whether visiting patients, their families, medical personnel or passing through a hospital waiting room, therapy dogs are truly a bright spot in the uncertain, foreign environment of a hospital. The two-legged and four-legged volunteers in the Paws 4 Healing program at OSF and in the Caring Canines program at SwedishAmerican enjoy personal satisfaction in their mission of spreading comfort and happiness to others.

 

 

— Therapy program generates personal joy while spreading comfort to others —