CALGARY -- A local pet therapy program is now offering virtual visits to help people struggling through the pandemic or dealing with other stresses.
The Pet Access League Society (PALS) helps bring dogs, cats and other animals into hospitals, senior centres, hospices, the Calgary International Airport and more.
Public health measures have limited those visits during the pandemic but with stress at a high right now, PALS has moved online to continue offering supports.
“It just takes you away from all the crisis and all of the negativity (sic) and brings you to to the goodness, the pureness and the love,” says executive director Diana Segboer.
Segboer adds that animals can offer a huge mental health boost for someone going through a difficult time including those dealing with the challenges of COVID-19, financial pressures, illnesses, grief and more.
“We’ll be sending pictures and doing videos,” she explains. “So, we’re still doing what we’re doing, we’re just not doing as we should be because right now is the time when the pet therapy is needed more than ever.”
Megan Carpenter and her dog Angus volunteer for the program and she says the impact of the program is substantial.
“Angus has an incredible impact on people,” she says. “The pandemic has just isolated people whether it’s seniors, whether it’s hospices or in the hospitals, or workplaces. Some of the special events we have done have been corporate so like I said, I think people just need this therapy right now.
“It’s an unconditional love," she adds, "that’s brought into them.”
Chad Zelenski knows the benefits of the PALS program all too well and expects it would translate well virtually. Roughly two years ago his then three-year-old daughterSimone ended up in hospital with a rare bone infection. The surgery to treat it came with a lengthy recovery in hospital and Zelenski says regular visits from the PALS program was a welcome distraction in an otherwise traumatizing experience.
PALS hopes to return to in-person visits as soon as they’re safely allowed to which according to Carpenter, can’t come soon enough for Angus.
“When I put his blue ribbon on his he knows he’s going to work,” she says. “When we weren’t going, because we usually go two or three times a week, he was actually quite moppy around the house.”
For more information on a virtual visit for an individual or organization you can visit https://www.palspets.com/
