Hospice

Providing Comfort and Care through Pet Therapy

Because a primary goal of hospice services is comfort care, Pet Therapy is an ideal option for providing comfort to patients who often feel isolated in the hospice setting.

Pet Therapy assists with:

• Comfort care
• Bringing back memories
• Encouraging activity
• Providing unconditional love

Healthcare experts say that hospice patients are noticeably more active and responsive during and after animal visits.

At St. Elizabeth Hospice we also use pet therapy as a bereavement resource with our STARS program. We believe that therapy dogs provide a welcome distraction from grief as well as emotional support and comfort when confronting grief.

In addition to providing the traditional support, one of our therapy dogs David (a 3 ½ year veteran of the STARS program) has his own book. The story of his journey towards becoming a therapy dog contains topics to discuss with children that may help steer them towards dealing with the death of a loved one. Each child gets a copy of the book and each parent gets a copy of a guide sheet that can help lead to discussion about the book. The story ends with David meeting his new friend and a photo of David and the child together.

David’s Trainers Club

The children first learn to communicate with the dogs by following our motto “Firm and Fair, Confident and Kind”. Then we go outside and each child runs the dogs through “David’s Agility Challenge”, an agility course. Successful completion of the course and a promise to adhere to our motto when dealing with dogs and people earns the child a certificate and a club pin.

David’s Angels

At St. Elizabeth Hospice, we have partnered with grieving pet owners who have agreed to share their memories of their pets with the children who are going through the STARS program. After learning about these “angel pets” and sharing their own memories of their deceased loved one, the child is able to choose an angel animal to “give” to their angel.