Pawsitive Coping: Facility Dogs as Child Life Collaborators

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This webinar will give an overview of facility dog work being done with child life specialists all over the country, highlighting an array of program structures and types of interventions child life specialists and dogs do to help kids cope. Challenges, successes, troubleshooting and celebrating within these programs will be discussed.

Participants will conceptualize facility dog programs as they function alongside child life programs.
Participants will identify both the unique successes of this work as well as common challenges.
Participants will gain an understanding of how facility dogs can change outcomes for patients, families, and staff, in the healthcare environment.

Suggested Domain: Intervention

Kizzy Marco

Facility Dog Program Coordinator

Kizzy Marco is a two-time graduate of the University of Iowa and has been working as a Certified Child Life Specialist since 2012. She began her career at Cook Children's Medical Center where she worked for 6 years. Currently, Kizzy serves as a Program Coordinator at Children's Hospital Colorado, alongside her very best friend, Ralph Lauren the dog. Kizzy is considered a national expert in the field of facility dog work. Kizzy's other professional interests include writing, diversity and equality, public speaking, and combating impostor syndrome.

Kara Klein

CCLS

Kara has been working with her full-time facility dog, Bella, for over 8 years. Kara was one of the first child life specialists in the country to partner with a facility dog in her work. Kara and Bella originally worked with children impacted by abuse and neglect, and now Kara is the full-time program coordinator of Canines for Kids, the renowned facility dog program at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. In 2013, when Kara presented her work at ACLP conference, Kizzy set out to learn more about how dogs could potentially help kids cope.