In their final days, some people in Australia’s island province of Tasmania end up far from home and their beloved comfort creatures.
Now volunteers are looking to bring palliative care patients visits from their pets.
According to some palliative care organizations, pets are an important part of end-of-life care.
But many owners cannot keep their pets with them during care and in a decentralized state like Tasmania, many patients end up far from home.
“It can really add to a person’s stress,” said Colleen Johnstone from Palliative Care Tasmania. “Pets are often the only companions that people might have, particularly elderly people who their spouse may have already died.”
Kimberly Elford drives and boards pets for a business, but one job left her wanting to do more.
A client asked if she could transport two dogs across much of the island state to visit their dying owner.
Elford did it, and for free, and then for many visits afterward.
“I couldn’t stop thinking about it, thinking about how many people may need a service like this. And it was a terribly sad situation. So, I just thought; ‘How can we help?’” said Elford.
She decided to put a call out online for volunteers to drive pets from remote parts of Tasmania to visit their owners in palliative care.
Within days she received hundreds of messages from people offering to help.
Janine Cornish stepped up because she knew from personal experience what it would mean for those people.
“My dad recently passed away and his cat was with him most of the journey,” she said. “And having them together was very important to him and he would stress if he was in hospital without the cat.”
Johnstone said the effort was worthy of whatever help it could get.
“Any initiative like we see through pet therapy or through volunteer services, bringing pets to people when they’re dying, is something that as a community we should all be getting behind,” she said.
