Meet Bob – The service dog at Tufts Medical Center
I love this story! Meet Bob. Bob is a service dog at Tufts Medical Center and is the first ever hospital service dog in a Massachusetts pediatric hospital. He works five days a week at both Tufts Medical Center and Tufts Children’s Hospital, and sees as many as 20 patients a day. Bob is specially trained in providing comfort to patients and staff to ease their anxiety and stress. What a great thing to offer patients who are struggling with reduced visitors because of COVID restrictions.
I had the chance to talk to Andrea Colliton – Director of Child Life Services at Tufts via email, and she gave me some more info about Bob’s journey to Tufts, what it’s like to be one of his handlers, and more. From Andrea…
We were able to start our hospital service dog program due to the very generous grant funding we received from Dunkin’s nonprofit the Joy in Childhood Foundation. Their funds were what allowed us to be able to make this dream come true. We were then able to partner with the service dog education organization called Canine Assistance based in Georgia. We then had to apply for a hospital community service dog and get approved. Anne Marie Sirois and myself (the two handlers that take care of Bob at the medical center) were finally able to fly down to Georgia not only to get Bob, our new employee, but to receive a week of intensive training to become certified as Bob’s handlers. We were originally supposed to be flying down to get him and our training at the end of March, but due to Covid-19, our trip was postponed. This was very sad news for all of us. We then had no idea what to expect with this new virus and also if we were ever going to be able to get Bob to Boston! Fortunately, as the summer went on and Covid numbers were decreasing in the state, Anne Marie and I got special approval from our hospital administration to fly down to Georgia and to get our training needed to be able to bring Bob to Boston and ultimately to start his new job at Tufts! I knew that starting this new program at the hospital would be a benefit to so many patients and families, but I had no idea how much of an impact it would have on the staff! The added stress and anxiety from the past year has really taken a toll on us all and the love, joy, and compassion that Bob has brought to our hospital is priceless!
Here are a couple of other facts: Bob is specifically trained as a hospital service dog and is only considered a service dog in our hospital. He is trained on specific tasks to support children, families, and staff to work on mobility needs, stress and anxiety support, behavioral dysregulation and he has been a great resource to help reduce pain and provide some normalcy in our hospital setting. In my role as a certified Child Life Specialist, I am able to utilize Bob with our pediatric patients to work on specific physical, developmental, and social/emotional goals for their care. Also, we do want to stress that he gets plenty of break/rest time and is not seeing staff/patients for the full 8 hours in his work day! He is very well cared for and loved.
So grateful that Andrea shared more about Bob, and you can also find him on Instagram (@BobTheDogTuftsChildrens). Also want to take a minute to say thank you to Andrea, Bob, Anne Marie, and all the other employees at Tufts for all you’ve been doing during the pandemic. Know that you are loved and appreciated for all you do. Get more info on Tufts Medical Center HERE.
