These dedicated pooches don’t care even if there’s a lockdown enforced.
They are doing their best to bring smiles to the juvenile patients of the children’s hospital.
The administration of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is making sure that their team of 127 therapy canines from the dog therapy program can still visit the patients and their families through the lockdown/quarantine via the computer screens of their clients.
The organizers of this dog therapy program have been running the operations for 5 continuous years now and they couldn’t afford to break the chain.
Manager of the dog therapy program, Kate Buhrmaster, said in a blog post: “Our CHLA community was anxious, and we turned to innovation to help us provide something meaningful for them.”
She further said that they are using Webex video conferencing services for their virtual dog visits.
Sixty of the 127 dogs and their caretakers have so far virtually visited the socially distant patients. People on the receiving end of the calls have been very happy with the dogs visiting them.
“They were oohing and aahing at their screen,” Buhrmaster added.
“Then the questions started: ‘Can you scratch him behind his ears? Can you give him a belly rub for me?’ Just seeing a relaxed doggie face on the screen looking back at you does wonders.”
The program is arranging one-on-one check-ins as well as weekly “Paws and Relax” meetings in which eight dogs show up at the receiver’s computer screen in a team to cheer them up.
“We know we are kind of like comfort food for the hospital,” the manager said.
“We are a familiar part of the CHLA community. We let you check-in, take a deep breath and have a moment to appreciate that we are all in this together, even if we’re on the other side of a computer screen.”
This method of dog therapy was adopted by the L.A. dog program in the past when the dogs were not allowed to visit the rooms of patients in intensive isolation following bone marrow transplant surgeries which lower the patients’ immunity.
“People told us the thing that was going to be harder, on an emotional level, for the patients was not having the dog therapy program there.
“I thought ‘I can’t let that happen,’” Buhrmaster said in her blog post. “We came up with the idea of doggie pen pals, where we can deliver laminated photos and letters from the dogs to the kids.”
The blog post concluded: “Every time a challenge comes our way and we are faced with ‘How can you help in this situation?’ we meet that challenge.
“We believe a day without a dog would be a sad day at CHLA.”
Replaced!