When I first met Dr Lange and Josh at one of the exhibit booths during an American Academy of Pediatrics meeting in 2008, it was “love at first sight.” From the moment I became familiar with Josh and Friends, I knew that Josh had the capacity to be an incredible tool for healing through the power of mind–body medicine. My challenge was to figure out how to implement a program at Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital (LLUCH) where Josh could be used appropriately to help comfort and heal our pediatric patients.
LLUCH is a unique hospital environment where “whole person care” is part of our motto and openly embraced, so it was the perfect place to find the support I needed. It would take collaboration with multiple organizations, including volunteer services, Child Life Council, Western University College of Veterinary Medicine, University of California at Riverside, and our local American Legion post. Everyone was excited when they heard about the potential for Josh to help our LLUCH patients. With collaboration like this, it is no wonder that our experience with Josh and Friends at LLUCH has been amazing. We have now had more than $70,000 donated to our Josh Project and countless hours donated from volunteers.
As a behavioral-developmental pediatrician, I knew that our best results with Josh would likely come from children aged between 3 to 8 years. Younger children would not grasp the concept that Josh was sick just like them and got better with the help of the hospital. Older children would merely see the Josh puppy as a stuffed inanimate toy and not believe in the “magic of Josh.” I firmly believe that the success of our Josh program at LLUCH has been our focus on the correct presentation of the story I’ll Be O.K. with the Josh companion puppy given to the appropriately aged child. Our volunteers are trained specially to deliver the Josh plush puppy and tell the story I’ll Be O.K. in a way that makes Josh come alive as a “therapeutic tool,” which helps each child feel comforted and promotes his or her healing process. We have taught our volunteers to modify the I’ll Be O.K. story so that they can quickly tell the story in 5 minutes or less, using the pictures in the book without necessarily reading every word. This was especially helpful for our young, very sick patients with short attention spans.
At LLUCH we have found that Josh and his story can do amazing things; however, if Josh is not appropriately presented then the plush puppy merely becomes another toy, not the therapeutic tool it has the capacity to be. For this reason, patients at LLUCH are only given a Josh and Friends Gift Set when a trained volunteer or child life specialist can present the set personally. I am excited that Josh and Friends is in the process of developing teaching tools for hospitals, volunteers, and parents so that they can better use Josh to help children everywhere. There is no question in my mind that Josh has the power to comfort, but more importantly Josh has the ability to facilitate the healing process.
Sharon Riesen, MD Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital
We had our first ever “Josh Day” on May 20 at the University of California Davis Children’s Hospital. Ten veterinary student volunteers passed out Josh dogs to the kids, read Josh’s story, and then helped the kids “take their Josh dogs to the vet” by playing with lots of medical supplies that Child Life Council staff provided for them, such as bandages, ECG leads, face masks, etc.
There also were 2 therapy dogs in attendance at our “Josh Day,” a collie named Jordi and a golden retriever named Cayenne. The kids got to listen to the dogs’ hearts and check pupillary light reflexes with pen lights (which they absolutely loved). Several of the kids commented to me that they were surprised that a veterinary exam of a dog is so similar to what happens to them whenever they are examined by their own doctors. We also brought along some veterinary radiographs and had the kids help us interpret them, such as a pregnant dog with puppies, a broken leg, and a radiograph of a bird. This was especially good for some of the older patients who, by the end of the session, were confident in pointing out some of the anatomy on the radiographs, such as the animal’s spine and legs and started making diagnoses on their own.
All in all, everyone involved had an amazing time. This event truly showcased the human–animal bond at its best. My Josh Project volunteers simply could not stop talking about their experiences with the kids after we finished. Child Life Council staff at the hospital were very happy with the way the event turned out, and have invited us to come back to do further events as often as we are able.
Brittany Stevens Student American Veterinary Medical Association Josh Project Coordinator University of California Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.
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