Donor Support Helps Pet Therapy Thrive at University Hospitals
If you see a crowd of people gathered at UH Cleveland Medical Center, it’s very likely there’s a Pet Pals dog or two at the center of the group.
Pet Pals started 30 years ago with a flop-eared rabbit named Bo who visited post-surgical patients at UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s. After seeing the positive reactions, a pet therapy was established with just three dogs. Today, around 100 volunteers bring mainly dogs to visit with patients, their families and caregivers throughout the health system.
“When Pet Pals first started, people didn’t think animals belonged in the hospital,” said Barbara Nalette, Dee Kleinman Endowed Director of UH Volunteer Services. “However, since then we’ve seen firsthand the benefits of animal assisted intervention. The hospital is a high stress environment and visits from our Pet Pals really improve the mood of everyone. You cannot put a value on our dogs and the difference they make for our patients and staff,” she said.
The Power of Philanthropy
Barb is the first to admit that as the program grew, she struggled to keep up with both Pet Pals and her other responsibilities. “I was in charge of Pet Pals across the entire health system and there was no way to manage the program and also help it expand.”
That changed in 2019, when Rob and Trish Risman and family made an incredible gift to create the Marion C. Risman and Family Endowed Pet Pals Coordinator. Today, Diane Pekarek holds the position and manages the Pet Pals program.
“Dogs are my passion, personally and professionally,” said Diane. “While the dogs are great at what they do, they are not robots and canine behavior and their cognition is what I’m passionate about, particularly helping dogs be comfortable in the hospital setting.”
Moving Pet Pals Forward
Diane’s first priority was to establish a facility dog program. Facility dogs are specially trained to keep patients calm before, during, and after medical procedures, and provide comfort and support to staff, patients and family members in a hospital setting. Unlike therapy dogs, facility dogs train with their handler to assist in duties of their specific work environment.
Thanks to donor support, UH welcomed its first full-time facility dogs in fall of 2020. Today, UH has four facility dogs on main campus working in the Angie Fowler Adolescent & Young Adult Cancer Institute, Breen Breast Health Center, Volunteer Services and the pediatric intensive care unit. Two more dogs are scheduled to come on board this year and Diane hopes to one day expand the program throughout the system.
In addition to the facility dog program, Diane has also increased community outreach:
- Workplace Wellness - Companies can request a Pet Pals visit to help relieve employee stress as an employee stress reliever.
- Children’s literacy - Pet Pals visit area libraries so kids struggling with reading can improve their skills by reading aloud to a dog.
- Parent education – Pet Pals help teach new moms and mothers-to-be on how to safely introduce their baby to a dog and prevent dog bites, the number two reason kids visit the emergency room.
Looking to the future, a plan for puppy classes would help grow the pipeline for therapy dogs so that younger dogs could learn to adjust to the hospital setting before they become official Pet Pals.
Barbara and Diane agree that the growth and success of the program to-date was made possible because of UH’s patient-focused, caring culture. For the same reason, the future of the program is bright.
“I love how compassionate and dog-centric UH is—they understand the power dogs have to help with so many aspects of what we do in health care,” said Barb. “These dogs give people hope.”
Learn more about how you can help support the Pet Pals program.