Northern Light Health is expanding its in-house therapy dog program to AR Gould Hospital in Presque Isle. The dogs now support patients and staff at four Maine hospitals.
The program launched two years ago at Eastern Maine Medical Center and has since grown to Acadia Hospital in Bangor and sites in Blue Hill and Ellsworth.
The Presque Isle hospital is the fourth expansion of an initiative Northern Light has called a “success” in providing emotional support and reducing stress, among other benefits. Northern Light’s goal is to have therapy dogs regularly available at all of its hospitals across the state.
In the program, teams — consisting of a human volunteer and a dog — visit each hospital, and staff can request visits through an app.
“You wouldn’t think that the simple act of volunteering with your canine partner would actually result in what I think is magic,” said Stacey Coventry, Northern Light’s director of community engagement and animal assisted interventions, who has seen the canines benefit occupational and physical therapy patients.
“We have seen patients who are recovering from strokes, who are learning to talk again and regain fine motor skills, be frustrated with their OT [and] PT in a traditional sense and then a dog comes in and all of a sudden their muscle memory kicks in and they can open their hand and pet a dog.”
Coventry and her dog, Koda, began the training program in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, when they were the only therapy dog team left after the nonprofit Northern Light worked with stopped coordinating visits over health concerns.
Northern Light partners with Bear Brook Kennel in Brewer to host five-week therapy dog preparation classes. Participants follow with coaching and mentorship with Coventry, who is the community partner lead for Pet Partners, an organization that certifies therapy dogs.
There are almost 30 volunteer teams currently participating in the program, a total Coventry believes will grow to 40 by the end of this summer.
“I think it’s just a great opportunity in any kind of facility where you provide care,” Laura Turner, the director of community outreach and philanthropy at AR Gould said. “We recognize that we do all the medical things, but this goes beyond that. This goes to the comfort that we try to provide our patients and we’re really excited about starting the program at AR Gould.”
The expansion to Presque Isle is intended to serve as a pilot for integrating the program into Northern Light sites far from Bangor. The training will be hybrid, with mostly virtual classes.
“We don’t expect people from Aroostook County to come down to Bangor-Brewer. And we can’t go up to Aroostook once a week, “ Coventry said. “If we can get enough teams interested, we will actually come up to AR Gould and do a clinic day where we take the five weeks of class and we put it in one weekend.”
There is no limit on the number of volunteer teams that can participate in the program, but both the dogs and their handlers have to meet certain criteria.
“They have to have a solid bond,” Coventry said. “The dog has to have its basic skills and obedience. So it needs to be able to sit, stay, walk loosely on a leash. It can’t be reactive when passing by other animals. And the handler really needs to be a people person.Yes, the work and the magic comes from the dog, but the rest of it comes from the human piece and the human connection.”
Northern Light’s program is a symptom of the national evolution of animal-assisted therapy in recent decades, growing from a novel practice to one supported by evidence. Coventry is also working to bring miniature horses to the organization’s hospitals, the only other animal allowed under system policy.
“Animals bring a different type of compact and a different type of healing connection,” she said. “Whatever Northern Light allows me to introduce to our programming, I will gladly explore and do so.”
People interested in participating in the program can contact Turner at [email protected].
