Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Acting General Manager of Katherine Hospital Paul Dimond says therapy dog Izzy is already making a positive impact on patients and staff despite still undergoing training

Transcript

Acting General Manager of Katherine Hospital Paul Dimond says therapy dog Izzy is already making a positive impact on patients and staff despite still undergoing training · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We know that there's a new therapy dog at the
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Catherine Hospital already making a difference to patients' lives despite
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: still undergoing her training. The hospital was able to obviously
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: get that non allergic, well, non allergenic, I should say,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: pooch from Paus Darwin. After raising thirty eight thousand dollars
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: at the Council's Defense and Mayoral Ball back in July
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: and joining us on the line to tell us a
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: little bit more is the acting General Manager of the
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Catherine Hospital, doctor Paul Diamond.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Doctor Diamond.
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: Good morning everybody, and good morning to your listeners. You're
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: great to be here.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, great to have you on the show. Tell us
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: a little bit more about the therapy dog.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: Well, as you know, and you guys helped with the
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: success of that by advertising for us. That was brilliant.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: That was a well.
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: Attended charity ball. The Catherine Defense and Mayoral Ball was
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: a inaugural ball which we hope may continue for years
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: to come, yet with a charity option to raise the
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: funds to support the purchase and training of Easy, Who's
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: our therapy dog. She's a two year old standard White
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: poodle who's just gorgeous. At the moment, she's sitting at
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: my feet and we were blown away, absolutely blown away
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: by the generosity of the Catherine community. So well done, Catherine.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Oh, how wonderful and Easy sounds like she's just gorgeous.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: What's she like with the patients and the staff? Oh?
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: Look, she's already made a difference here. She wanders around
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: with her specified handlers. We have a wonderful training program
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: in tow at the moment to get our handlers used
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: to Easy and more importantly, get Easy used to our patients.
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: But so far she's just done an amazing job. The
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: reception she's received from staff and patients has been fantastic.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: How wonderful.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: So tell me a little bit more about the training
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: she's doing to sort of get used to being around everybody.
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: Well, I'm going to I have Lisa here from Pause Darwin,
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: who's actually going to tell you that because she is
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: the expert, and I'll pass you over to Lisa.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: Lisa, Hello, wonderful to hear from you. Lisa. Tell us
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: a little bit about the.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Training that Easy he's been doing, and you know how
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: you guys are getting her used to the different handlers,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: but also being around patients and staff see a.
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: Lot of the work that we've done with her, Katie
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: is socializing and so a lot of people out and
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: about and Darwin have had opportunity to say alover easy
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: and talk to her.
• 2:40
  Speaker 5: And I just take her everywhere that I can. Obviously,
• 2:45
  Speaker 5: she needs to have some really good obedience skills and
• 2:47
  Speaker 5: things as well, so we work on that through training,
• 2:51
  Speaker 5: and we have a few trainers at PAUSE, so those
• 2:55
  Speaker 5: people all practice handling with her as well, so that
• 2:58
  Speaker 5: she's used to multiple handlers.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: How awesome. I just love you know, I love dogs,
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: as you know, Lisa.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: But then when you look at these therapy dogs and
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: what they can do with different you know, with different situations,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: and how they can help people, Paul, tell me a
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: little bit more. I understand that she's already helped a
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: little girl during one of her training visits to the hospital.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: Tell me a bit about that.
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: Oh look, it was just fabulous and it was she
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: supported a four year old or tests. I hope she
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: doesn't mind me saying her name is sure she doesn't.
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: Who had a full arm cast fitted if I remember rightly?
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: And Tessa's mother explained that this was the first time
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: she'd had a cast fitted and it was quite traumatic,
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: as you can imagine an experience for her daughter. But
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: with Easy by her side, Tess was too busy petting
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: and talking too easy to really worry about the pain
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: and all the rest of it and the you know,
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: the putting on of the cast, which can be tom
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: as well. And before she knew that the cast was fitted,
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: Tessa's mum was really impressed and felt that Izzy had
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: made a massive difference to her family that day. And
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: I think we call is he the light fluffy cloud.
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: I think she's probably ignored them that she's going to
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: be a very valuable member of our staff.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: I reckon, this is just wonderful. I'd love to meet
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: is He? Tell me as well, I know that well
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: that obviously she's in Catherine, she's at the hospital there.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Is she going to be permanently based there.
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: Yes, from January. So she comes down for some socializing
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: and some trainer handling, obviously some trainer handling education with
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: the different people, because she will be with different people
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: from time to time who will in fact, and she'll
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: be booked like a star because we'll have a booking
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: office for her. She'll have a cat for and hospital
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: in Big Rivers, ID with an all access pass and
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: so she's really being treated like a member of the staff,
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: and quite frankly, I think it's a really exciting time.
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: Having said that, of course she needs some downtime, she'll
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: be she'll be boarded with a few of our staff,
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: and especially in the initial period in January where she
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: comes to us full time, it'll be a little stressful
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: for her coming away from her before family in Darwin
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: and to her forever family down here. But you know,
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: and we couldn't have done any of this without the generosity.
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: I have to make a plug, sorry, am I Going.
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: Fletcher's Farming, of course, was one of our MAJORUS ones,
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: and I just want to shout out to him, to
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: them and all of our sponsors who were really instrumental
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: in getting this dog down here, as well as doctor
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: Kerry Jones, our ad clinical director, who started all this
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: conversation in the first place. But look, I can't say
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: you think more than a huge heart feel takes you
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: to everybody's made this possible.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Oh how wonderful I reckon. This is just fantastic. Doctor Diamond.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: Tell me how much of a difference is her presence
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: going to make as well for the staff at the hospital.
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: Do you think, do you know what post COVID, we're
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: all a bit drained, we're tired where over the whole virus,
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: although we do know it's still out there and still
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: raising it's artically head. But it brings a smile to
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: everybody's face. And our starf simply overjoyed with actually having
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: some tangible asset that they can touch and feel, and
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: they get a real kick out of seeing her on
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: duty and having her in the wood makes a big
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: difference to everybody's day because let me tell you, I'm
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: the majority of a lot of our nursing staff are
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: are transient. They've coming from their homes in all across
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: the Australia in support Catherine Hospital and they leave their
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: own pets behind, and I think it's a really wonderful conduit.
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: They miss their own pets, their own dogs, their cats,
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: their rabbits and all sorts of things. And if he
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: just really does manage to fill that small gap for them,
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: and I think that's part of her socialization and our
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: health and well being as well, she does make a
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: big difference.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: Oh how lovely, what a little legend is he is,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: and well done to the whole community as well of
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: Catherine rallying behind to make sure that that money was
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: able to be raised so that she was able to,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: you know, so that she's able to obviously help out
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: in the hospital permanently from January next year. Doctor Paul Diamond,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: the acting General Manager of the Catherine Hospital, and of
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: course Lisa from Pause, thank you both so very much.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: For your time this morning. It is greatly appreciated.
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: Oh you're very welcome, and thank you for the time
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: you're given to us as well. We and touch base
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: with us next year and we'll give you an update.
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: And I know catherine untown counsel, who were also huge
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: in them, is very interested in keeping them informed about
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: what's what's going on. But thanks a million everybody.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Good on your Dr Diamond, thanks so much, and we'll
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: be very keen to take you up on that offer
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: and catch up with you early next year.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: Have a lovely Christmas and you too, and to
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: Your listeners, thank you, thank you bye now.