East of England Ambulance Service welcomes more than 50 dogs to wellbeing scheme

Dozens of dogs are joining the ambulance service as part of a wellbeing scheme to support staff who have experienced traumatic incidents.

The East of England Ambulance Service (EEAST) introduced the ‘GoodDOGs’ scheme last year to allow staff member’s pets to become wellbeing dogs through an assessment overseen by the charity Canine Concern Care Dogs.

Once qualified, they can be booked to support colleagues’ wellbeing and boost morale by visiting ambulance stations, control rooms and A&E departments.

Project lead Kirstie Wells, a quality improvement and professional standards specialist at EEAST, said: “GoodDOGs has been an amazing project to be involved with and it is growing fast.

“The enthusiasm of colleagues to support each other’s wellbeing is heartening.

“This gives us scope to expand the use of GoodDOGs and we have plans to introduce wellbeing walks.

“We have three assessors currently but are soon getting two more to help us work through the enquiries we have received.”

There are currently 52 dogs on the scheme with more than 60 hoping to join in the future.

The registered dogs include a greyhound named Lennie, an Alaskan Malamute cross named Togo, labradors named Hector, Ruger and Shelby, a cocker spaniel named Douglas and a Paillon called Louie.