PETS AS THERAPY VOLUNTEER

Job summary

Therapy Dogs needed

At Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust we are blessed with a team of dedicated volunteers and their registered therapy dogs providing emotional support for our patients and staff and always welcome additional volunteers and registered therapy dogs.

If you own a registered Therapy dog with either Pets as Therapy or Canine Concern we would love you to consider joining our team of volunteers. Pet owners will need to become MTW volunteers with all the associated pre-volunteering checks including an enhanced DBS check.

Main duties of the job

Please read below how therapy dogs can impact our patient within the Stroke unit.

After a stroke, patients are at their most vulnerable, can become isolated in the hospital environment and are missing their "normality". PAT dogs are a way to re-connect to the outside world, providing some familiarity, routine, and some warm welcomed distractions. These PAT dog interactions are so important for stimulation, providing comfort, company, and for enhancing mental health & wellbeing, not just for the patients but for staff also.

PAT dogs:

• Gentle and calm demeanour
• Loves to be in the company of others

The impact for patients on stroke:

• At a time patients are most vulnerable
• Comfort
• Morale
• Calming
• Happiness
• Stimulation
• Familiarity
• Distraction from hospital isolation
• Connection
• Interaction
• Routine
• Enhances overall wellbeing
• Sense of purpose
• Natural mood booster

For staff:

• Natural mood booster.

For dogs and owners Volunteers:

• Enrichment from meeting new people.

Sense of purpose, giving back.

About us

Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust is a large acute hospital Trust in the county of Kent.

The Trust provides a full range of general hospital services and some areas of specialist complex care to around 500,000 people living in the south part of West Kent and the north part of East Sussex.

The Trust's core catchment areas are Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells and their surrounding boroughs. We work from two main clinical sites: Maidstone Hospital and Tunbridge Wells Hospital at Pembury. Tunbridge Wells Hospital opened in 2011 and provides single rooms with en-suites for all in-patients - the first of its kind in the country.

We employ over 6,500 full and part-time staff in a huge range of clinical and non-clinical roles across both of our hospital sites.