Making a Pawsitive Impact in East Texas
It’s a Wednesday evening at Christus Mother Frances hospital and a little girl has just been admitted to the pediatric unit. It’s already been a long day – a trip to the ER for an asthma flareup followed by a visit to her pediatrician, and now an overnight stay for monitoring. She’s tired and scared, as are her parents, when a knock on her hospital room door brings an unexpected surprise – the Therapets are here! The next 20 minutes are filled with dog snuggles, smiles, and giggles, as four pups of all sizes and breeds take turns visiting. When the last paws leave the room, the tension is lower and everyone is breathing a little bit easier.
What is Therapet?
Therapet: Animal Assisted Therapy is celebrating our 32nd year of providing Animal Assisted Activities (AAA) and Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) free of charge to the East Texas community. Founded in 1994 and restructured as a 501(c)(3) organization in 1997, Therapet’s programs are provided by specially trained volunteer animal teams. What started as a small group of six founding volunteer teams has grown to over 140 volunteers, 70 dogs, a cat, and a cockatoo.
Where We Serve
Our volunteers take their own specially trained and certified pets to hospitals, schools, and community organizations to motivate, comfort, and inspire people. Therapet services are integrated into successful treatment programs of numerous community agencies:
- At East Texas Crisis Center, the comforting presence of a dog helps victims of domestic violence work through their pain.
- Interacting with a dog is therapeutic for special needs populations at Wayne D. Boshears Center for Exceptional Programs, Chapel Hill ISD, and Breckenridge Village of Tyler.
- Animal Assisted Therapy at Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital incorporates the Therapets into treatment plans during Physical & Occupational Therapy, helping patients meet their goals and sometimes smile through the pain.
- With Therapet's R.E.A.D. © (Reading Education Assistance Dogs) programs at Lillie Russell Memorial Library in Lindale, Beckville ISD, & Brownsboro ISD, children improve their literacy by reading one-on-one with a certified team. By reading to a dog, children are able to improve reading skills in a unique environment free of performance pressure or peer judgement.
- Therapets routinely make rounds Christus Mother Frances and UT Health East Texas (Tyler and North campuses) in order to improve patients’ outlooks. On occasion, the animals have served as a distraction during procedures to reduce patient stress, anxiety levels, and sedation needs. The positive effects carry over to family members dealing with hard decisions and undesired outcomes. And hospital staff, nurses, and physicians report that interacting with the Therapets reduces their stress and improves their morale as well.
How to Become a Therapet
Because of the proven services provided by Therapet, AAA and/or AAT has become a major part of treatment plans or programs offered by thirteen community agencies in East Texas and we have over thirty facilities on our waiting list. Our ability to serve more facilities is wholly dependent upon number of dog teams in our organization. If you have a dog that loves to meet new people, get ear scratches, and has a calm temperament, come take a class with us. Even if they don’t make it to certification, you’ll never regret spending time with your pet and witnessing them learn new things.
Therapet prides itself on its rigorous certification process and infection control standards. All Therapets are required to pass an annual skills check off and be current on all vaccinations.
How to Support Therapet
Therapet never charges any facility, group, or person for our services. We are 100% donor funded. You can support us by sponsoring Unleashed—our biggest fundraiser of the year! Purchase tickets and attend Unleashed on October 24th, from 6:00-10:30pm at the W.T. Brookshire Conference Center. To learn more, visit www.therapet.org/unleashed.