Therapy dogs program dissolves
After more than 14,000 hours and more than 3,000 visits to local schools, seniors centres and hospitals, St. John Ambulance therapy dog program has been cancelled in the Garden City.
In a letter to volunteers March 12, the St. Catharines branch of St. John Ambulance said the program was being shut down “based on numerous issues identified, including the recent resignation of unit leadership.”
“We are currently looking for a new leader or leadership team for the therapy dog program,” said Marcia Young, branch manager for St. John Ambulance in St. Catharines. “We want to bring the program back, but, unfortunately, I cannot say when that will be at this time.”
The shutdown of the popular program followed months of tension between the group of 10 volunteers that previously ran the therapy dog unit and St. John Ambulance.
Lori Thwaites, a member of the former leadership team, told The Standard the administrative demands of running the program — it includes scheduling visits for therapy dogs, and ensuring dogs have their latest vet papers and their roughly 65 owners had police checks done — were overwhelming.
“We did 3,900 hours of administrative work (in 2017),” said Thwaites, who also does therapy dog visits with her pet Mecho. “We joined to help people with our dogs, and this was becoming too much.”
Thwaites said the leadership team asked St. John Ambulance for a paid staff person to handle the administrative work. That request was denied.
Young said most St. John Ambulance programs in St. Catharines are volunteer-run and directed with the approval of the branch’s board directors. They do not have paid staff. Resources used for a salary would pull resources away from St. John Ambulance programs, such as providing first-aid kits.
Because the therapy dog program was volunteer-directed, Young said the leadership team was told to reduce its workload to a manageable level.
Suzie Peters, another member of the leadership team, said it wasn’t the result of too many therapy dog visits but the size of the program. Each dog and pet owner have specific requirements to be met and documented on a regular basis.
“Whether you have 100 visits or three visits, all that work has to be done,” she said. “Sometimes we were doing 20 to 30 hours a week of administrative work.”
Unable to come to an agreement with St. John Ambulance and upset with how they feel they were being treated, the 10-person leadership team resigned. They would remain volunteers for therapy dog visits.
Thwaites said at a tense volunteer meeting in February Young told the therapy dog group that the branch would manage the program going forward.
However, Young said without a dedicated volunteer leader, the program couldn’t be managed properly and it was dissolved.
“We continue to look for a new volunteer leader or leadership team who can restart the program,” she said.
In the meantime, people who want to bring in therapy dogs in St. Catharines are left waiting.
“We understand the people being hurt by this are the schools and seniors homes who need therapy dog visits,” Peters said. “I don’t think they needed to shut the program down entirely. They could have gone on autopilot for a couple of months until they figured out a new solution.”
The former leadership team said it is exploring options to make therapy dogs available to the community without St. John Ambulance. Other therapy dog programs in Niagara, including the St. John Ambulance program in Niagara Falls are unaffected.