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Date: 12/5/2023
SPRINGFIELD — Among the countless employees at Baystate Children’s Hospital, there is one new hire that stands out from the rest. Sure, the four legs and bushy tail might be the obvious physical difference, but the positive energy and morale boost that the team member brings is palpable.
Isabela — Isa for short — is a 20-month-old golden retriever who joined Baystate in August as the hospital’s first facility dog, made possible through a $150,000 grant from the Dunkin’ Joy in Childhood Foundation.
This charitable foundation supported by Dunkin’ provides “the simple joys of childhood” to children battling hunger or illness. It partners with food banks, children’s hospitals and nonprofit organizations to help support the children who need it most.
Baystate Children’s Hospital Pediatrics Department Chair Dr. Charlotte Boney said having a facility dog was a dream of the Child Life Department for many years, however, when they started to work on it, the coronavirus pandemic hit. Despite the setback, she said they “persisted” to get this done.
Amanda, Isa’s primary handler whose last name cannot be shared, traveled to Georgia in August with colleagues to get to know Isa and learn the training program before bringing her back to Springfield.
Isa is from an organization called Canine Assistants which is based out of Georgia, where they raise service animals for hospitals and individuals.
“They are one of the leading organizations for facility hospital dogs,” Amanda said.
Isa began her training at 7 weeks old and completed about 1,500 hours of instruction and 2,200 hours of group instruction before she was ready to graduate.
“She was the first of her litter to graduate, so we are very proud of her for being the all-star of her litter,” Amanda said.
Since coming to Baystate, Amanda shared that Isa has already provided amazing care. “She’s still getting used to things, but she is doing great work already.”
Isa is a full-time employee at Baystate Children’s, working 40 hours a week. Currently, she works Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., but has a flexible schedule for events happening on the weekends or at night.
“Isa is a little different from a pet therapy dog. Her job is goal-oriented intervention, so she provides pain management, she provides motivation for ambulating when children need to do physical therapy or occupational therapy or after surgery — they need to get up and walking, she can be present as a comfort and distraction through procedures,” Amanda said.
Isa helps with blood work, IVs, G-tubes and dressing changes, to name a few of her day-to-day tasks.
For patients that might fear the equipment, staff can practice on Isa first to show it is not threatening or painful. Whether it is standing in front of a CT machine or listening to her heart with a stethoscope, Isa provides comfort to the child before it is done to them.
In addition to helping children and their families, Isa also supports staff.
Amanda said that Isa has participated in some support debriefings after tough cases, in which the staff has found to be beneficial.
Throughout her day, Isa travels to various parts of the children’s hospital aside from the surgical unit and neonatal intensive care unit, due to infection control and keeping those areas extra sterile.
Isa will visit with patients in the acute care units, pediatric intensive care unit, pediatric procedure unit, emergency department, oncology clinic, specialty clinics at Wason Avenue, High Street primary care clinics and in radiology.
When Boney takes people around to meet Isa, she said an immediate recognition is that she does not act like a 20-month-old puppy.
As someone who has golden retrievers of their own, Boney said, “She’s the best trained puppy I’ve ever seen in my life.”
She went on to say that when Isa goes home and takes off her work vest, then she acts like a puppy. However, Boney said the training that was provided to Isa is “amazing” in the fact that she is “so impeccable” in new settings, meeting new people, strange noises and lights.
“My two-year-old golden retriever would be a nutcase,” Boney said. “This is fabulous training.”
On top of her good behavior and beauty, when people see Isa, they instantly smile and become relaxed, Boney shared. “They want to pet her and all of a sudden, their day is better. I’m talking everybody … Everybody feels this way,” she added.
Since Isa has joined the Baystate team, Boney said she thinks it has done amazing things for morale. While she knew Isa would be beneficial to patients — which was seen early on — it was also seen immediately with the staff.
What Boney referred to as the “golden retriever superpower” is that they can sense emotion better than humans can.
“They make terrible guard dogs … They make wonderful service dogs and comfort dogs for this very reason. They love humans, they want to be with you, they want to please you,” she said.
Boney shared that Amanda and her team are inundated with people who want to come visit Isa, including her.
When Amanda has a meeting, she has to leave 20 minutes before to get there — even if it is a two-minute walk down the hall — because everyone wants to stop and see Isa.
The human-canine duo spends about 95% of its time together. “She works primarily with me, and she lives with me,” Amanda said. However, when they are apart, Isa is with one of the two secondary child life handlers. Both individuals are trained in the case that Amanda is off work or traveling.
“Isa’s very connected to the three of us. We’re like a little pack,” she shared.
While the Dunkin’ Joy in Childhood Foundation grant covers various aspects, one of those is the human cost.
Boney said that a handler is committed to this program. For instance, Amanda goes to work and brings Isa but also brings her home at the end of the day — like a police officer and their K-9 assistant.
“We have to support the human because this is a big commitment that Amanda has made, really having a new part of her family, 24/7,” Boney said.
Amanda said having Isa has represented a “big change.”
“I knew going into it it was going to be different, but it was so much more than I ever thought,” she said. “It’s more work, it’s a little more overwhelming, it’s a lot more challenging, but it’s also more rewarding and more enjoyable. My work has changed with the patients but I enjoy every minute of it now. I loved my job before, but my job is exponentially better now that I have a dog with me all day.”
Amanda went off Boney’s point and said being Isa’s primary handler is a constant job. While it has been an adjustment, Amanda said she would not trade it. “She’s amazing and I love having her as part of my family,” she added.
To do this, Boney explained that an individual must have experience in child life and healing arts, but they also need to be a dog person and be willing to take on a puppy.
Boney recognized the “great” work Amanda has done with Isa. “They are beautifully bonded — I can tell when I see the two of them together how well bonded they are,” she said.
She went on to say that the Dunkin’ Joy in Childhood Foundation’s support of support children’s hospitals — particularly with the facility dogs — is “amazing.”
“Having facility dogs in children’s hospitals has really become almost state of the art care in children’s hospitals in the last 10 years,” Boney said.
There are about 80 facility dogs in children’s hospitals across the country and are becoming more common in schools, along with police stations.
“What’s amazing about the Dunkin’ Joy in Childhood Foundation is they saw this years ago and decided that’s something they could do for child health and wellbeing in children’s hospitals is make a facility dog possible,” Boney said.
Without that grant, it would not have been possible for Baystate.
“Thanks to them [Dunkin’ Joy in Childhood Foundation], their insight and really their support for children, now smaller children’s hospitals like ours can provide state of the art care,” Boney added.
Amanda said some of the money for the grant also supports the program ongoing. It helps with some of Isa’s vet bills, food, grooming and more, along with the upfront costs such as the training.
While the Dunkin’ Joy in Childhood Foundation provided the largest amount in funding for Isa, there have been several other donors that contributed to make this program possible, such as Universal Electric and the University of Massachusetts Amherst UDance Marathon hosted last spring.
Boney emphasized the importance of the child life and healing arts department, not only in Baystate, but every hospital. She said having it reduces length of stay, decreases the need for pain medication and decreases anxiety, to name a few benefits.
“When people started realizing that, having child life at a children’s hospital is now a requirement for accreditation,” Boney shared.
Baystate has a “state-of-the-art” Child Life Program because they have “great” child life specialists and now the “icing on the cake” is having a facility dog, Boney said.
Amanda emphasized that Isa as a facility dog is a service animal, which is different from therapy animals. She said a lot of people get their roles confused so they are working on educating staff and families about the difference.
To learn more about the Dunkin’ Joy in Childhood Foundation, visit joyinchildhoodfoundation.org.