AR Gould Preps for New Dog Therapy Program

PRESQUE ISLE, Maine (WAGM) - A paw-sitive step for patients at Northern Light AR Gould Hospital in Presque Isle. The hospital is launching a new Therapy Dog Program and is looking for friendly local canines and their handlers to help bring comfort, companionship, and a little extra joy to patients and staff. Hospital leaders say the dog does not have to be your own but must be one you know well and are comfortable handling. The initiative started at Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center where its success led to expansion at three other hospitals, now including AR Gould.

“We’ve really wanted to establish a pet therapy program here. We worked on this opportunity for a while but our partners at Eastern Maine Medical Center have really increased their pet therapy program and they’re up to 30 teams. They said they would reach out and help us get started and so we’ve been putting the word out. We are recruiting for pet therapy teams. Right now, we’re just starting with dogs and their handlers to volunteer here and help out our patients and staff,” said Laura Turner the Director of Community Outreach & Philanthropy at A.R. Gould Hospital.

According to Turner, her inbox is already filling up with emails from people hoping to volunteer. But she says not every dog or handler will be the right fit. “There’s no particular age. There’s no particular breed. We’re looking for canines that have a really calm demeanor, obviously love people, and are at a good place to be able to absorb some training. It is a bit of a stressful role. They talk a lot about the canine taking on some of the stress of what goes on in whatever organization that they’re serving.”

Turner says the program will have a positive impact on both patients and staff at the hospital. “The pet therapy program is not just for patients, but it is also to provide some comfort for staff and when we have departments that maybe had a traumatic event or a difficult situation they too can request to have a pet therapy team come in and provide comfort to them as well. We’re here to help you take care of yourself medically but we recognize that the medical, that’s not the whole person. Our patients are whole people. We are also here to provide comfort and compassion and we’re quite sure that these teams, the pet therapy program can really help us do that as well.”

Turner says the program will begin once volunteers and dogs complete the required training. Anyone interested in joining a pet therapy team can reach out to lturner@northernlight.org for more about this paw-some opportunity.