Authors
- Megan Nutbean1,
- Lyndal Ritchie1
- Lort Smith1
2018
Excerpt
Megan has held various community development and volunteer coordination roles since commencing at Lort Smith in 2013. She currently coordinates the Pet Therapy program, which involves partnerships with 50 external organisations, each of which is expected to work with Lort Smith to support and supervise visiting volunteers (and their dogs). Prior to Lort Smith Megan worked at the Centre for Multicultural Youth, the Asylum Seeker Welcome Centre and The East West Foundation of India – each role involved establishing and managing partnerships with other volunteer-involving organisations.
Lyndal is a Pet Therapy Volunteer (Lort Smith) and Patient Support Volunteer (Olivia-Newton John Cancer and Wellness Centre). She has an honours degree in Science and experience in the laboratory, scientific sales, technical support and communication. Lyndal completed Lort Smith’s Pet Therapy Assessment and Training with her Greyhound Maggie in 2016 and was then connected with the volunteer program at ONJ. After completing further training, Lyndal started her pet therapy visits to palliative care patients with Maggie and later become an ONJ Patient Support Volunteer too. Maggie and Lyndal love visiting Palliative Care, providing joy and support to patients, family and staff.
Abstract
Authors: Megan Nutbean; Lyndal Ritchie;
Lort Smith and the ONJCWC began discussions in 2016 to explore how they might work together to enable Lort Smith volunteers to bring their dogs to visit patients in the hospital. The presentation will outline the steps that were involved in reaching a formal agreement between the two organisations and the training that was undertaken by the volunteers, and the outcomes for both organisations since the agreement was signed.
While broader resource constraints mean that Lort Smith is not able to replicate this model with other palliative care services at the present time, the lessons each organisation learned will be useful as palliative care services consider partnerships with a range of organisations from other sectors they may not have worked with before.
Lyndal is a Pet Therapy Volunteer (Lort Smith) and Patient Support Volunteer (Olivia-Newton John Cancer and Wellness Centre). She has an honours degree in Science and experience in the laboratory, scientific sales, technical support and communication. Lyndal completed Lort Smith’s Pet Therapy Assessment and Training with her Greyhound Maggie in 2016 and was then connected with the volunteer program at ONJ. After completing further training, Lyndal started her pet therapy visits to palliative care patients with Maggie and later become an ONJ Patient Support Volunteer too. Maggie and Lyndal love visiting Palliative Care, providing joy and support to patients, family and staff.
Abstract
Authors: Megan Nutbean; Lyndal Ritchie;
Lort Smith and the ONJCWC began discussions in 2016 to explore how they might work together to enable Lort Smith volunteers to bring their dogs to visit patients in the hospital. The presentation will outline the steps that were involved in reaching a formal agreement between the two organisations and the training that was undertaken by the volunteers, and the outcomes for both organisations since the agreement was signed.
While broader resource constraints mean that Lort Smith is not able to replicate this model with other palliative care services at the present time, the lessons each organisation learned will be useful as palliative care services consider partnerships with a range of organisations from other sectors they may not have worked with before.