Pets As Therapy

Today, my support group was introduced to a PAT dog. PAT stands for 'Pets As Therapy'. PAT is an organisation founded in 1983 that operates separate to the NHS but provides visits with animals for people suffering with mental illness, the elderly and children, at such places as hospitals, hospices, nursing and care homes, special needs schools and a variety of other venues

The dog we met today was called Harry, a Labrador cross breed who had a wonderful temperament and in no time at all managed to change the mood of the group.

It was clear that the dog had been very well trained. He immediately homed in on me as I have a Springer Spaniel bitch. He then moved to another member of the group who also has a dog. It was interesting to hear that cats are also used to great effect and there is even a rabbit!
We've arranged for Harry to come visit us every fortnight and for more information about their work, visit       http://www.petsastherapy.org

Harry was accompanied by our Volunteer Services Manager and we were thrown into a state of uncertainty and confusion as it turns out we may be forced to break away from the NHS Volunteer Service we currently operate under. It should be noted that up to now, our manager has encouraged us to apply for funding. Our work on a Thursday tales place at non-NHS premises and as such it is possible that we may not be insured. This has no bearing on whether or not we provide our services, but it will mean that we will be responsible for everything we do. There will be additional costs to consider such as public liability insurance, though hopefully we can build these into our funding bid costs for next year. There is another consideration and that is expenses. Currently, we are able to claim our expenses back from the NHS for travel but if we were to break away from them, we would no longer be able to claim. As the majority of those running the Group are on very low incomes, these expenses provide a level of relief and funding to enable us to do what we do. If this facility was withdrawn then it does throw into doubt our ability to self-fund our activities. I know this has got a few of our members worried but I think it's important to await the outcome of the meeting before we begin to panic.