TUSCALOOSA, Ala (WBMA) — Patients and caregivers at DCH Regional Medical Center in Tuscaloosa are greeted by special guests weekly.
Therapy dogs walk the halls and visit patients.
Maggie and Gracie are on a simple mission, a mission to spread joy. The two are therapy dogs with the animal-assisted therapy group Hand in Paw.
They just bring a little joy. I remember walking in the ICU one day and one of the nurses said oh here comes smiles.
Maggie and her handler Carol Develice have been on the job for seven years.
I know she enjoys it because her first instinct is to go forward to somebody new and say hey you want to pet me. That’s her job she knows it and she loves it.
The joy Maggie brings comes with health benefits.
Just petting the dog lowers your blood pressure. It raises the good endorphins it brings a feeling of quiet and peace.
It’s a comfort Develice knows all to well.
“When I was going through breast cancer treatment the first day of chemo, Jackie brought her dog Scottie a “Hand in Paw” therapy team in and it made me feel just as a patient everything was going to be ok, We got this,” Develice said.
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Vernice Smith is battling b cell lymphoma. Today she got a visit while getting chemotherapy.
It was pretty cool especially when you don’t actually have dogs and see them all the time. she was just the sweetest little thing, she let me pet her which is great.
For Smith it’s an encounter that came right on time.
I look at it as kind of making my day, it is, I’ve had a rough morning and I’ve had this month a rough couple weeks and a few bad months. Yeah so that was great that’s really nice.
There are also a few therapy cats.
“Hand in Paw” serves hospitals in Tuscaloosa county and Birmingham.
To become a therapy dog, the dogs have to go through an obedience class, get screened, then go through a four week workshop, then an evaluation.
They’re reevaluated every two years.
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