Intro: It's Your Health Radio, a special podcast series presented by Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital. Here's Melanie Cole.

Melanie Cole, MS (Host): Did you know that Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital has a pet therapy program that really helps to raise patients' spirits and provides them with moments of comfort at a time that can be so confusing and so scary?

Welcome to It's Your Health Radio with Henry Mayo Newhall. I'm Melanie Cole. And we're talking about that pet therapy program today with April Garcia. She's the Manager of Volunteer Services at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital. April, thank you so much for joining us today. And before you tell us all about the pet therapy program, which of course I want you to do, tell us who's with you today.

April Garcia: This is Barley. He's one of our volunteers. He has been here for over five years.

Melanie Cole, MS: I'm in love with Barley. If I could reach through my camera and just give him a little squish, I would be so psyched to do that. Why don't you tell us about this wonderful program that really, I mean, I know what pets can do and what they can do to help us feel a little bit calmer and better. Tell us about the program at Henry Mayo.

April Garcia: So, Henry Mayo has a pet therapy program. It takes a special combination of animal person and commitment to be a part of our pet therapy program. Dog owners-- we call them our handlers-- volunteer for this type of service. They're extremely generous and compassionate people, because it takes a lot of time and it does take a lot of finances to be able to be a part of this program. The handler is required to be a vetted volunteer prior to being assigned to our pet therapy program.

Melanie Cole, MS: How long has this program been in existence?

April Garcia: This program has been in existence for over 20 years.

Melanie Cole, MS: Wow, isn't that wonderful? So, tell us a little bit about the pets that are helping these patients. Are they only dogs? Are there other pets? I mean, I've seen horses on videos before. Tell us about some of the pets.

April Garcia: All our pets are dogs. We do have one bird, his name is Glory. There's only 34 birds in our niche that are pet therapy animals, and we have one of them. And his name's Glory. But all the other animals are our dogs.

Melanie Cole, MS: I wish you'd brought Glory today so we could meet him as well. Why don't you tell us a little bit about the pets themselves. You told us a little bit about the handler and how do you determine what pets are going to make really good therapy.

April Garcia: A great therapy dog, they're friendly, they're obedient, they're calm and gentle. They're patient, they're confident, and they're affectionate, as you could tell. And all of our therapy dog teams, they must be registered through PET Partners or Alliance, which is an international not-for-profit organization. They must complete three main requirements, which is a handler's course, an animal health screening, and they must pass an evaluation annually. So, you can't just come off the street with your dog, think they're a great dog for the program. These dogs are required to be certified and insured through either PET Partners or Alliance.

Melanie Cole, MS: April, how do the patients love the pet therapy program?

April Garcia: They love the program, and not only the patients, but our staff members. Our staff members call the volunteer office, because we have dogs that come every single day of the week. And we try to have a dog in the morning and in the evening. They're not on a specific time, it's just around that time that they come during the day, because they can be temperamental. So, we want to make sure that they're having a good day and before they bring them in. They also have to be bathed. They have to be in good spirits to come in. But we'll have staff calling, and sometimes the volunteer doesn't make it past the nurses station. They'll also even go into our admin offices, and we've had some admin get on their knees and just kind of hug on the dogs. So, these dogs not only help the patients, but they help all the staff with the stress of the day. And they just get to come in, and let us love on them like I'm doing with Barley right now.

Melanie Cole, MS: They provide so much comfort. I swear we do not deserve our little pet friends. And I love that the staff gets to take part in this as well. Because we all know, April, with burnout and overworking and all of the things going on in the world, the stress that we all feel, and for little Barley to be able to help us with that, I would want to cry. That's the cutest thing.

So now, tell us a little bit about if somebody-- you said they can't just walk off the street, which is obvious-- but if somebody does think that they really have like the golden retriever of all golden retrievers, maybe it's an already a service dog, and they want to get involved in this program, because they know they've just got the most awesome pet, how does somebody get involved? Is there a way to get started to do this?

April Garcia: They reach out to the volunteer office. The first question we ask, are they part of Pet Partners or part of Alliance? And if they are, then it's perfect. And usually, they are, "I'm referred to by a current pet therapy." The pet therapy community, they're very tight knit here in Santa Clarita. They don't only come to the hospital, they go to the schools, they go to the library, so they all know each other. So, they all know the requirements, but all volunteers, all handlers must be vetted into the volunteer program. So, they have to go through the process, through orientation, background and everything. And then, once they do that, then the handler and the dog become Henry Mayo volunteers and they're assigned to our pet therapy program.

Now, if these people come off the street and they don't know anything about Pet Partners or Alliance, then I connect them to somebody who is so they could share with them the process that it takes to be a part of that.

Melanie Cole, MS: How cool is that? Now, tell us what it's like. So, the handler takes their wonderful little non-human friend, and walks them room to room. Is like Barley, for example, allowed to get up on the bed if the patient is pediatrics in nature? Or what are the pets allowed to do? What are the patients allowed to do as far as getting involved with the pets?

April Garcia: So, the handler will take them to the room. And if the patient wants the animal on the bed, we will lay down a clean towel or a blanket and put them bedside and just let them love on them. If they can hold them, they would. But normally, they just kind of lay at the bedside and pet them. We've had in the past where our dogs have gone to our acute therapy area, and that patient hasn't spoken in like a week. And then, they pet the dog and they say hello, they say something. So, we have a lot of great stories.

Our pet partners, what they do is they communicate. So, let's say Barley came in today. The handler would then send out an email, and the email would say, "I visited patients in the pavilion and then the tower," and then they continue on with that email, and then they just pick off where the next one left off. And then, if they say they visited with the admin or different departments throughout the hospital, then they'll note that as well. Yeah, they just piggyback off of each other.

Melanie Cole, MS: Now I'm going to ask a question that I know must be kind of weird to ask, but what if our little pet friends have to use the bathroom while they're making their way around the hospital? What happens then?

April Garcia: Well, they're trained. So, they know not to go potty in the hospital. So, they go potty before they come in. And then, the handler has them. And it's up to the handler to know what's at the best interest of the animal. They know how to read them. They know if they need to go to the restroom or not. That's why I said they don't come in at a specific time. They come in at like more of a time of day. So, they know they've already went to the restroom, they had a good morning or afternoon or evening, and they're ready to go and work for a good hour or so.

Melanie Cole, MS: If someone's a patient in the hospital and they want a visit, what do they have to do? Who do they tell?

April Garcia: So, they tell their nurse. And then, their nurse in turns calls the volunteer office, and then we send out that email. And in that email is every single pet therapy volunteer. And whoever's coming in that day will take note that that patient needs a visit. Now, if that volunteer already left for the day, then we'll just answer that patient visit for the very next day.

Melanie Cole, MS: Do you have any stories you'd like to share where someone like Barley has really helped lift a spirit of a patient that might have been particularly scared, nervous, sad, any of those things?

April Garcia: There's like a story every day. Like I said, acute rehab, we had patients that didn't talk for a week and the dogs step in, and they say a word or two. We have family members that are up in our ICU waiting room, and they're waiting on their loved one to find word. And the therapy dogs could go up there and turn their sad tears into smiles.

Our dogs were a huge part during a lot of stressful times here at the hospital. And we've had a lot of those events in our community. And just them being present with our staff has really helped our patient care team even go in more confident and lower their stress level to be able to provide a better patient care and experience for our patients here.

Melanie Cole, MS: What a lovely program. April, do you have any final thoughts you'd like to share with the listeners, with the viewers about little Barley and Glory, and any of your other pet friends that are helping at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital for patients and staff and admin and the families to kind of perk up the spirits just a little bit?

April Garcia: Well, I'd just like to say thank you to each and every one of our pet therapy handlers, volunteers, and animals. Like I said, getting started involves a lot more time and effort than what you think, and energy. And I don't think our community has any idea the commitment that it takes, or our staff. Sometimes they do think it's easy to just have their animal come on in and visit them. But there's a lot of preparation, a lot of time, a lot of commitment, a lot of dedication to their training to their healthcare to their evaluations. And honestly, I don't think they get enough credit for everything else that they do outside of the dogs. The dogs are wonderful. But the handlers, if it wasn't for the handlers, we wouldn't have the pets that we have here. So, thank you to every single one of the handlers that has chosen to bring a dog here and to Henry Mayo to be a blessing to the patients, and to the staff, and to the visitors.

Melanie Cole, MS: A blessing indeed. Thank you so much, April, for joining us today. And thank Barley for us for showing up on camera with us too today. That's just a wonderful program, and thank you for all of the hard work, because that really is such an important part of healthcare. And the healthcare community is making patients feel just a little bit better while they're going through all of that. So, thank you as well, and thank you for joining us today and bringing Barley with you.

And if you're interested in the Henry Mayo Pet Therapy Program, visit volunteer services page at henrymayo.com. You can also visit the free Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital online health library at library.henrymayo.com. That concludes this episode of It's Your Health Radio with Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital. I'm Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for joining us today.