Transcription:

Bill Klaproth (Host): Interacting with a friendly pet can help many with healing from a physical or mental ailment and brings a smile to even the sickest of patients. That’s why Pullman Regional Hospital provides a healing environment with the Prescription Pets Program. So, let’s find out more about this really cool program with Kelly Sebold, a Speech Language Pathologist at Pullman Regional Hospital. Kelly, thanks so much for your time. So, first off what is the Prescription Pets Program at Pullman Regional Hospital?

Kelly Sebold, MA, CCC-SLP (Guest): Well hi Bill. Thank you. The Prescription Pets Program at Pullman Regional Hospital is a volunteer program that allows trainers with their animals and in our case, most of them are dogs, all of them are dogs right now, that visit patients who are in the hospital for various reasons to provide comfort. So, we offer petting, visiting, and it just allows them some distraction and visit with our team.

Host: Yeah, that’s really wonderful. So, how did the program get started?

Kelly: Actually when I was work – I’m a speech language pathologist and I was working one day up at the hospital visiting with a patient who we were having a conversation about dogs since I’m a dog lover myself. And it turned out that her – she owned a standard poodle named Lily and our family had just put down a standard poodle named Rico about three months prior. Same size and color, et cetera. So, we really connected on that level.

When I returned the next day, her family, her kids had come up from California and mentioned their mom talking about our conversation and they had been looking to rehome their dogs for her so she could move to California and it just connected really nicely. They offered their dog to our family and it was just a great generous act that they did. So, I went to our administration. We had just rolled out a generosity inspires program and I wanted to share that story. I wanted to highlight that patient’s generosity towards our family.

And in the act of the process of doing that, I was told about a pet visiting program that the hospital used to have named Boustead Buddies and it had not continued on for some reason the years prior and I was encouraged to start one because it had been something I had wanted to do in my practice for years. so, with the encouragement of the hospital, I looked into it and figured out how to go about getting registered with Pet Partners which is a local organization in Washington state but it’s a national organization.

And after going through the training, was allowed and able to bring Lily to visit patients and kind of share that generosity from her family to patients.

Host: Yeah, that’s a really great story. I love it. And this is such a cool program. So, I know there are a ton of benefits. Maybe you can share a couple with us in general. So, what benefit does the program provide to recovering patients at the hospital?

Kelly: The program is really kind of a program that sneaks into your heart. Of course there are benefits to the patient but there are also benefits to the volunteer with the animal and to the dog. But primarily, the visits offer a really comforting distraction to patients. Not everyone wants a visit and that’s fine. But the ones that do, seem to really enjoy connecting with someone whose not necessarily a medical provider. It can be a reminder of home, maybe of a pet that they used to have, or they currently have, and they just seem to enjoy that animal portion of the visit.

They get lots of visits from people, but the animal just adds an element that’s hard to explain. It can help reduce stress. It can decrease heart rate and blood pressure. It can release positive hormones for both the dog and the person so that they are less stressed. There is research to back that up and it’s kind of interesting to see it actually happening. And so it’s just really fun to be involved in that.

Host: And that really helps triggering those positive thoughts when you are in recovery. So, I got to tell you, my brother-in-law Chuck, just had brain surgery several weeks ago. So, we were in the waiting room and the elevator door opened and out came two pets, the Prescription Pet Program. And I got to tell you, the whole room, the waiting room dynamic changed when the pet walked through. It was amazing to see the attention.

Kelly: That’s so cool to hear.

Host: Yeah, isn’t that great? The attention that dog gathered, and everybody wanted to pet the dog and you kind of just kind of forget what you are worrying about for a minute and it’s just great.

Kelly: It is great. It’s like to perfect ice breaker and some of these dogs, I mean you don’t – we’ll talk about it in a little bit about how to get involved; but some of these dogs really learn to know what their job is, and they seek people out that they sense need that comfort and so it’s really fun to see those dogs working too. It’s not work to them, but they are naturals at it.

Host: It is, and the dynamic is just amazing, and the benefits are true. So, Kelly, tell me, if someone wants to become a Prescription Pet volunteer, how do they get involved?

Kelly: There are a couple of different ways that a person could get involved. Here, locally, an easy way to get started is to email myself directly. I’m the coordinator of our program. Or you can contact our volunteer services director through the www.pullmanregional.org website and she can direct you. Currently it is Nickie Nolt. She can direct you to the steps to get involved. The people are registered as a volunteer, the human is and then the dog is registered with their human as a Pet Partner team. so, there are a couple of steps.

You could email me directly and I can connect you with the dog trainer and the local service provider to help get you started. And my email is my first and last name Kelly.sebold,KELLY.SEBOLD@pullmanregional.org. Some people aren’t sure if their dog is a good fit for it so taking them to a basic obedience course to get started is a great way to start and you can also go to www.petpartners.org which is the local organization our of Bellevue, Washington.

Host: That is great information. So, Kelly are there any special memories as a Prescription Pet volunteer that stand out to you?

Kelly: Yes. Actually I have a lot, but the ones that kind of stand out are a woman who was at the hospital who happened to be blind and she was not necessarily open, she wasn’t really excited about the visit but once she started engaging with my dog Lily and petting her; you could see her kind of change her tune a little bit and she really enjoyed it. The tactile and the warmth of the dog, she just really – her senses got involved and she lit up and she seemed to really benefit from it. So, that was a nice visit for me to see the impact of a dog for someone who might be a little bit reluctant.

But probably my most recent best memory would be when we had a flu shot clinic here at the hospital for staff and employee family members and this staff member was an ER employee and she was one who really struggled with anxiety when she got her shot. Severe, I would say, and it helped her tremendously to have the dog sitting there while she got her shot so she could talk to me and to Lily while she got her shot which doesn’t take more than a few seconds. But it really minimized her anxiety and it gave her a positive experience and she was very appreciative. And that was a great memory.

Host: So, amazing. I love this program. So cool. Kelly, thank you so much for your time. This has been great talking about the Prescription Pet volunteer program at Pullman Regional Hospital. Thank you.

Kelly: You’re very welcome. Thank you, Bill, for the time and the opportunity.

Host: And if you would like to learn more, all you have to do is go to www.pullmanregional.org, that’s www.pullmanregional.org. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and check out our entire podcast library for topics of interest to you. This is the Health Podcast from Pullman Regional. I’m Bill Klaproth. Thanks for listening.