The Dog Therapy program provides tender loving
care delivered with a friendly and happy wag of a tail. While the dogs do not
understand the nature of a patient’s illness, they often sense sickness. No
matter the situation, they bring a ray of sunshine from outside the
hospital-wrapped in a very special form of “touch” therapy. The program’s
popularity and value is due not only to the dogs, but also to their masters –
the dedicated volunteers who train the dogs and accompany them on these welcome
bedside visits. At Banner Desert and
Banner Children’s at Desert Medical center we received some media coverage for
our dog therapy program after a press release
that went out in September that was sent out to encourage more volunteers to
apply for it. We had a great interview with FOX 10 morning shot and , volunteer
Jeanette and her dog, Pancho, were interviewed live. The segment aired at
various times throughout the rest of the day as well. Than the next day,
Telemundo also aired a short segment and posted the story on their website to
promote the story. Resulting in growing our dog therapy program both at our
site, but at other sites as well. An unexpected bonus
is that we received lots of photos of dogs- from their owners introducing them
to us and inquiring about the program.