Working with us, Winnie and Maverick help children feel safe sharing their worries, comfortable in the medical setting, and prepared and supported during medical procedures. They help identify those most in need and teach them positive coping skills.
Torie Miele and Sonya Charles, Child Life specialists and in-residence dog handlersPediatric patients at two Dartmouth Health Children’s sites in New Hampshire now have an extra special (and furry) addition to their care teams. The Child Life Program has introduced two in-residence Labrador Retrievers—Winnie, a one-and-a-half-year-old chocolate lab who works at Dartmouth Hitchcock Clinics Manchester, and Maverick, a two-year-old black lab based at the Dartmouth Health’s Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.
Both Winnie and Maverick live with a Child Life specialist who is also their full-time human handler at work. Winnie, whose handler is Sonya Charles, enjoys swimming and playing with her stuffed alligator, and Maverick, whose handler is Torie Miele, loves to kayak, collect stuffed animals, and have his belly rubbed. Both dogs were specially trained by the ColdSprings Healing Paws Foundation in New Ipswich, NH, in order to join the Dartmouth Health Children’s team.
“Working with us, Winnie and Maverick help children feel safe sharing their worries, comfortable in the medical setting, and prepared and supported during medical procedures,” Charles and Miele said. “They help identify those most in need and teach them positive coping skills.”
The new facility dog program is funded through philanthropic support from donors to Dartmouth Health Children’s. Winnie is sponsored through a grant from the Dunkin’ Joy in Childhood Foundation’s Dogs for Joy program. Launched in 2018, the goal of Dogs for Joy is to dramatically increase the number of in-residence dogs working in children’s hospitals around the country and the prevalence of animal-assisted therapy as part of treatment. Dogs for Joy in-residence dogs are trained to aid healthcare staff with everyday tasks like showing patients how to take a pill, modeling how to wear a hospital gown, keeping calm during a medical intervention, and incentivizing them to be active with the dog.
“The Joy in Childhood Foundation’s mission is to bring simple joys to children battling illness or hunger,” said Victor Carvalho, a Dunkin’ franchise owner and chairman of the Dunkin’ Joy in Childhood Foundation board of directors. “Our Dogs for Joy program helps do just that for kids in hospitals throughout the country, bringing them companionship during caregiving. We look forward to seeing the meaningful impact that Winnie has on kids at Dartmouth Health Children’s.”
About Dartmouth Health
Dartmouth Health, New Hampshire’s only academic health system and the state’s largest private employer, serves patients across northern New England. Dartmouth Health provides access to more than 2,000 providers in almost every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH, as well as across its wide network of hospitals, clinics and care facilities. DHMC is consistently named the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by U.S. News & World Report, and is recognized for high performance in numerous clinical specialties and procedures. Dartmouth Health includes Dartmouth Cancer Center, one of only 57 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the nation, and the only such center in northern New England; Dartmouth Health Children’s, which includes the state’s only children’s hospital and multiple locations around the region; member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene, Claremont and New London, NH, and Windsor and Bennington, VT; Visiting Nurse and Hospice for Vermont and New Hampshire; and more than 24 clinics that provide ambulatory and specialty services across New Hampshire and Vermont. Through its historical partnership with Dartmouth and the Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth Health trains nearly 400 medical residents and fellows annually, and performs cutting-edge research and clinical trials recognized across the globe with Geisel and the White River Junction VA Medical Center in White River Junction, VT. Dartmouth Health and its more than 13,000 employees are deeply committed to serving the healthcare needs of everyone in our communities, and to providing each of our patients with exceptional, personal care.
About Dartmouth Health Children's
Dartmouth Health Children's is the only comprehensive pediatric healthcare system in the region. Fully integrated in Dartmouth Health and anchored for more than 30 years by Children's Hospital at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (CHaD)—in Lebanon, NH—Dartmouth Health Children's promotes health, advances knowledge, and delivers the best patient and family-centered care for infants, children, and adolescents across New Hampshire and Vermont. Dartmouth Health Children's conducts groundbreaking research and educates the next generations of health professionals as the primary pediatric partner of the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. Highly skilled and collaborative child health professionals provide care in multiple settings across the region. Outpatient specialty visits and same-day surgery services are available at Children's Hospital at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (CHaD) and Dartmouth Hitchcock Clinics Manchester. Primary care appointments in general pediatrics are available at Dartmouth Hitchcock Clinics in Bedford, Concord, Lebanon, Manchester and Nashua, NH and Bennington, VT; as well as at Dartmouth Health members: Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital, Cheshire Medical Center, New London Hospital and Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center.