A new two-year pilot program from Baxter Foundation and Pet Partners aims to increase access to therapy animal programs in healthcare settings across the country.
RT’s Three Key Takeaways:
- Expanding Clinical Access: The partnership will launch as a two-year pilot program in Northern California, Upstate New York, and Greater Chicago to provide resources and training for therapy animal visits.
- Addressing Clinician Burnout: Brief therapy dog visits have been shown to lower stress and cortisol levels for healthcare workers, helping to strengthen healthcare resilience.
- Improving Patient Comfort: Research indicates that therapy animal interactions can lead to lower pain ratings and reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression for patients and their families.
Pet Partners and the Baxter Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Baxter International Inc, have announced a partnership to increase access to therapy animal programs in healthcare settings across the country, according to the company. The initiative will begin as a two-year pilot program in Northern California, Upstate New York, and Greater Chicago, with the goal of reaching 100,000 patients and healthcare professionals.
The program is designed to address high levels of stress and burnout among healthcare workers while providing emotional support to patients and families. According to research cited in the news release, interactions with therapy animals can lead to lower pain ratings for patients and reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression. For healthcare professionals, even five-minute therapy dog visits have been shown to lower stress and cortisol levels.
“Our collaboration with Pet Partners was inspired by the story of a young patient named Izzy who welcomed a dog into her life during her cancer treatment and named him Baxter – after the Baxter infusion pump that supported her chemotherapy,” said Stacey Eisen, chief communications officer and president of the Baxter Foundation, in a news release. “Hearing how much comfort Baxter [the dog] brought Izzy and her family was a powerful reminder of how healing the human-animal bond can be during incredibly challenging moments.”
The Baxter Foundation’s investment will support Pet Partners in several areas, including the recruitment and training of new therapy animal teams, the development of staff-facing programs to support healthcare worker well-being, and financial assistance for healthcare facilities to establish animal-assisted intervention programs.
The initiative aims to provide the administrative support and volunteer infrastructure that many healthcare facilities currently lack to sustain such programs.
“We are thrilled to partner with the Baxter Foundation to expand access to therapy animals and deepen the impact of animal-assisted interventions in healthcare,” said Annie Peters, CEO of Pet Partners, in a news release. “Together, we are creating meaningful moments that support resilience for healthcare workers and comfort for patients.”
The pilot program is currently underway in the designated regions. Pet Partners and the Baxter Foundation intend to use the results of the two-year initiative to help more healthcare settings integrate therapy animal visits into standard care practices nationwide.
