Hospice’s pet therapy program works well
All it takes is a little Sugar
Hospice of Naples Inc. in Florida started a pet therapy program for hospice clients in hopes of brightening patients’ days and making them more comfortable with hospice staff.
"We’d been wanting to do it for a long time. Then, we received some money from a local veterinarian," says Diane Cox, president and chief executive officer of the hospice, which serves Collier County on the southwestern coast of Florida.
First, the hospice needed to find the right dog for the job. The hospice formed a committee called Pets Are Wonderful Souls (PAWS). The goal for pet therapy was to comfort hospice patients through a dog’s visit, and help change a patient’s focus from discomfort to pleasure.
Filling the bill
They found the perfect dog for the job: Sugar, an English springer spaniel with big eyes and black and white fur, fit the bill perfectly. Sugar had belonged to a former hospice nurse and now needed a new home.
Hospice officials decided to place Sugar in a six-bed residential home, says Roberta Towle, MSW, LCSW, former assistant director of psychosocial services for Hospice of Naples, and current director of social services at the North Georgia Medical Center in Ellijay, GA. Sugar is with her now, and the Hospice of Naples is working on finding a replacement.
Finding her limits
Sugar had full run of the residential home, and she was treated affectionately by both residents and staff. After a month, however, it appeared something was wrong with her, Towle says.
"Those of us who were nurses said the dog was sick, and those of us who were pet people said the dog was depressed," Towle says. "Sugar really had no mother figure, and would become very attached to most of the residents. When they died, [she] was losing people who loved her."
The solution was to give Sugar a home away from the residential home. Towle brought Sugar home to join her two dogs and five cats. It worked.
Then Sugar’s duties changed to being a pet therapist for hospice patients who wanted to see her. Towle brought her along on visits, often finding that Sugar was able to work emotional miracles.
Working a miracle
One bedridden elderly woman, for example, had a negative attitude and needed constant oxygen administration. Towle brought Sugar to the patient’s home after receiving a call from a daughter who said that she might be dying.
"As soon as we walked in, Sugar went up to the woman and put her head on the woman’s bed, causing the woman to smile," Towle recalls.
Sugar wanted some water, so they took her to the kitchen. Suddenly, the bedridden woman took off her oxygen tubes and climbed out of bed. She walked without assistance to the kitchen and began to pet Sugar as though this was her normal routine.
"The daughter took me aside and said, I don’t believe this because just a couple of hours ago, my mother couldn’t get out of bed or breathe without her oxygen,’" Towle says.
Sugar also had an uncanny way of knowing when patients needed help. Towle often took her to visit residents at the hospice home. If a patient needed help, but didn’t have the strength to push the buzzer, Sugar would somehow know and stand barking beside the patient’s door.
Once, Sugar even knew before going into a patient’s room that the patient had died. Instead of running as she usually did to jump on the patient’s bed, Sugar began to run to the room and then stopped right before the door. The woman had just died and her body was still there, but Sugar appeared to sense that the person she had known was no longer there.
Finding the right dog
Not every dog is a Sugar, as the hospice has discovered since Towle and Sugar left in May. The first dog to replace Sugar did not work out very well. Towle suggests hospices choose dogs based on their disposition.
Springer spaniels, boxers, and Labradors are all good breeds to choose, she says. Hospice therapists or nurses could even experiment by trying out dogs from the local humane society to see which ones respond best to strangers, she suggests.
Some humane societies provide pet or puppy therapy for nursing home residents, and these animals might be ideal for hospice as well.
Once an agency selects the right dog, the key is to step out of the way and allow the dog to work its magic, Towle suggests.
"The key here was for me not to get in the way of the dog doing pet therapy," she explains. "I let the patient cue the dog and then let the dog respond to the patient’s cues."
A pet therapy program requires a hospice’s commitment and support from the top, because it does take some extra time to have a nurse or therapist bring the dog to patients’ homes. The benefits can be so tremendous that Towle says she thinks every hospice should start a pet therapy program.
Asking the right questions
Sugar, for instance, helped a 10-year-old girl discuss how she felt about losing her grandfather, who was the only father figure she had ever known. "She sat down and was petting the dog, and it was then that she could say to me, What’s going to happen when my grandpa dies?’" Towle asks.
Another time, Sugar had given one very frail older man the only playtime he had in his last days. Whenever Sugar visited, they’d play a game of his hiding doggie treats and Sugar nudging him to find them.
Finally it became apparent to the hospice staff that he was about to die, although he kept hanging on, waiting for someone. His son was supposed to arrive very soon, but the man kept asking for Sugar. Towle brought Sugar to him, and although he was very weak, he tried to play with her as he had before. Then he fell asleep and died that night.
"He didn’t even wait for his son," Towle recalls.
Sources
• Diane Cox, president and chief executive officer, Hospice of Naples Inc., 1095 Whippoorwill Lane, Naples, FL 34105. Telephone: (941) 261-4404.
• Roberta Towle, MSW, LCSW, Director of Social Services, North Georgia Medical Center, P.O. Box 1161, 1362 S. Main St., Ellijay, GA 30540. Telephone: (706) 276-4741, ext. 299.
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