Peace of Mind for Pet Parents Episode 070: You Don’t Have to Be a Vet: The Diverse World of Animal Hospice Practitioners

RESOURCES MENTIONED & RELATED LISTENING

• Animal Hospice Group (animalhospicegroup.com) — professional certification organization in animal hospice and palliative care
• LIVING Quality of Life Care Assessment Tool — Free download
• BrightHaven Animals YouTube Channel — Search: BrightHaven Animals | @brighthaven_animals
  • Breakfast at BrightHaven: https://youtu.be/V8erOv6B2Oc?si=bgd5wYsDTbh2G7zk

You might also find helpful:

• Episode 056: Someone in Your Corner — What a Veterinary Social Worker Can Do for You and Your Pet
• Episode 069: Preparing for Your Pet's Death — Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Ways to Make Every Moment Count
• Episode 053: From Pet Parent to Caregiver: The Quiet Shift Nobody Warns You About
• Episode 006: When Pet Care Gets Hard: Supporting a Pet with a Difficult-to-Manage Diagnosis

Related reading:

• What Is Animal Hospice Care for Pets?
• Life-Changing Diagnoses in Pets: A Comprehensive Guide
• Emotional Support for Pet Owners Facing a Difficult Diagnosis: Coping with Guilt, Fear, and Grief
• Monitoring Your Pet's Health at Home: A Palliative Care Guide for Chronic and Difficult Conditions

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Episode Transcript: 

Karen Wylie: Hello, and welcome back to Peace of Mind for Pet Parents. I'm Karen Wylie, here as always with my dear friend and colleague, Gail Pope. This week, Gail and I are going to do something a little different. We're basically going to pull back the curtain on something that doesn't often make it into our conversations with pet parents, but I think it should.

We've just completed 15 weeks of intensive training with a brand-new cohort of animal hospice practitioners. I have to tell you, I walked away from our final session yesterday with such excitement and satisfaction with these individuals, not just because of what they learned, but because of who they are and the extraordinary range of paths that brought them to this work. So today, we want to introduce you to the wide, wonderful world of animal hospice practitioners because if you're a pet parent navigating a difficult time with your pet, these are people who could change everything for you.

Now Gail, before we talk about what animal hospice practitioners do for pet parents, I think we need to start with who they are, because I think most people would be genuinely surprised. For those of you who don't know this, 'cause sometimes we do mention Animal Hospice Group but Gail is a co-founder of Animal Hospice Group, and I serve as its executive director. AHG began accepting students for professional training in animal hospice care five years ago now. Every cohort since then has reminded us how wide the door really is to this work, to this animal hospice work.

So Gail, when you look at the practitioners who have come to this training, what strikes you most about who they are and what brings them here?

Gail Pope: What strikes me most? I guess LOVE. Love for animals and love for the work that they do. Plus, I think what we're seeing at the moment in our culture is a change. It's an expansion. People are starting to look at the end of life for animals more in line with the end of life for humans. They're just opening, expanding the love all the way to the end of life I think. 

I know I have in the past rushed to euthanasia as the perfect way for a life to end, and sometimes it was, however, the more you learn about the work of hospice care and the love and the comfort and the being together with your animal, it's such a precious time. I think people are starting to really open to that. Again, people who have experienced various deaths of their animals want to learn more, but mainly it seems to be practitioners of other modalities who want to expand the way they can help their clients. It's just beautiful. It's just so exciting, isn't it?

Karen Wylie: Yes, it is exciting because it's such a wide, diverse field of students. When I came through the program four years ago as a student myself, I was coming from some wonderful training in human hospice and grief support. But I found that I didn't want to focus solely after the loss of a pet and then support the caregiver. I wanted to get in before decisions were made and support the caregiver through very difficult decisions to be made. 

So when I attended our first discussion group, my goodness, there were people who represented the physical care of animals. There were pet sitters. There was someone who had a grooming business. Someone else who was a massage therapist, a canine massage therapist. 

Then there were people like myself in the middle with grief support as the perspective that started them and got them interested but there were licensed MSWs, social workers. 

Then on the other side of the spectrum, there were Reiki practitioners and animal chaplains. It was really just wonderful to see all these individuals who were already providing care to pets and their caregivers but they didn't find that they were able to provide as much support to senior pets and those at end of life as they would like to.

That's what brought them to AHG. It was just wonderful in our discussion groups to hear the different perspectives as each person would be taking in new information and thinking about how they were going to be able to use it in their work.

Gail Pope: Yes, without doubt.

Karen Wylie: What do you think, Gail? If a pet parent or any professional was peeking inside of our discussion groups or training sessions, what do you think would surprise them most about what we actually do together?

Gail Pope: We learn together. We're all learning, I think, all the time. But when you put a small or a large group of people together, it's almost like magic happens because everybody has their own point of view. 

I think I used to go to discussion groups at the beginning fixed on, "Here's what we're going to talk about" but it would lead to other questions and other people would say "I've encountered..." or, "I learned so and so" and it'd be like, "Ooh, that sounds interesting..." so everybody learns in these discussion groups. We know what we teach but we've still got lots more to learn about so many different things in life.

Karen Wylie: Absolutely. We have three different levels. We have level one which is a collection of 24 lectures that were created by the co-founders of AHG. Those lectures cover the entire spectrum of a caregiver's experience from the time they get a terminal diagnosis for their pet and are providing home hospice care, all the way through to decision-making, quality of life assessments, and supporting them through and after the physical death of their pet, and supporting them in their grief and their loss and memorialization options that are available to them after care.

So level one provides the language and provides the big-picture understanding of what hospice care as a whole can be. 

Then most of our students are already focused in one part of that, one area, but then understanding the whole allows them to expand what they offer.

Gail Pope: Yes, I think we've heard it from the horse's mouth that I think students have come with some expectations but they're blown away because there are 24 lectures. 

As you say, they cover such a wide range of experiences. Then the opportunity to talk about what they've learned, I know I've learned just so much. I continue to learn all the time. It's just a wonderful opportunity, I think, to learn with and from kindred spirits. I think it ignites a spark in people to want to help. I think every student that we've talked to has a deep love for animals but they want to help people to help their animals, and I think that's what this offers.

Karen Wylie: I agree. From the lectures to a couple of discussion group opportunities every month, and then to our advanced training, like what we have offered for the four months this spring. 

There's a moment in the training where something changes because the skills are learnable. There's a shift in presence that takes place: a shift in confidence in your belief that you can hold space for a pet parent and help them through what is one of the most difficult experiences in our lives. We've all been through it ourselves, so that gives us the basis for that understanding.

When we see a student's confidence change, that's something else entirely. I think both of us had moments in this last cohort of students where I would look at you on screen and just know that you were thinking the same thing. "This person is ready."

Gail Pope: Yes.

Karen Wylie: Don't you think? It's like there's different moments that come where you witness a student crossing a threshold. It's like they have that sense that they can really help.

Gail Pope: Exactly. Exactly. It's an "Aha" moment of, "Oh my goodness, this is exactly what I can do and how I can fit it in with what I already do."

Again, the bottom line is helping people to help their animals and also realizing that the end of life journey cannot be précised into that space. It's so much bigger. There's so much more involved. Sometimes obviously there is an emergency and that can happen to any of us. But for the most part, it can be a long period of time where there is so much that we can do.

Karen Wylie: Exactly, in most cases, hospice care can be weeks and months. Sometimes as you and I have had, sometimes we've had animals last years beyond when they were expected to.

Gail Pope: Ah but then we have the bonus ones that come along for BrightHaven obviously perhaps more often than other people, where we've had an animal with a terminal diagnosis and we're still focused on healing for their highest good. We're not trying to fix or make them well completely, with a cure. We're making their lives the best they can be, They flourish, they flower. They open to a new understanding, or maybe we do. But then they go on to new life and live for three, four, five more years.

So again, that's the beauty of hospice for humans or animals. Once you go through this letting go and loving process, and living in the moment, and all the lessons that we've learned from so many animals, healing happens. 

And that's why BrightHaven's always looked at it as healing for the highest good. It's not ours to know what that healing means, and it may be for a peaceful, gentle, or beautiful transition in whichever way that happens. Or it may be for renewed life and let's get on with the show. Where's dinner?

Karen Wylie: You certainly had plenty of those.

Gail Pope: We did.

Karen Wylie: But I think what you're describing, is exactly another point to just underscore here, is that so many people think hospice means death or hospice means giving up. And instead, the way we look at it and the way our students and those who complete their certification in animal hospice as a practitioner, the way they're looking at it, is a much longer process and the gift of time. The fact that providing the very best of care thinking of it as healing from the highest good can often extend that life in surprising ways.

Gail Pope: I think one of the most surprising ways that I see, is healing and happiness for the caregiver as well as the animal. I think when people first come acknowledging that they need help and we actually can help them and bring some comfort, talk them off that ledge, help them to continue— they start to relax. They start to enjoy the love to accept what's happening, to step into the journey. And lo and behold, the animal is like, "Ah, I feel so much better now."

And the energy, it pervades the family. It pervades the environment. It allows the love to shine. There's still healing by whichever avenue is chosen. That's all going on in the background and yes it's important but love, comfort, living in the moment is far more important.

Karen Wylie: Absolutely. Let's take a minute to discuss, again, who comes through the training because we certainly have veterinarians and veterinary team members who come through who are already licensed as professionals in that field. But they come through the Animal Hospice Group program to learn more about the process from the caregiver perspective and how to support that caregiver. 

But it is a non-veterinary certification program.

I wanted to ask you, Gail, if you could speak just for a minute or two about why staying in that lane, in the non-medical lane, actually can make you perhaps more valuable to a pet parent and not less?

Gail Pope: Ooh. It's difficult to be concise about that. It's really important because obviously one of BrightHaven's most important statements emblazoned on everything that we do is that we're not veterinarians. We're not qualified to prescribe. The medical side stays separately.

What we can do is share our experiences and it embraces a whole holistic umbrella. And when I say holistic, what I'm trying to say is wholistic because it embraces the whole being and journey. That way we can focus on the different areas that we can help. We walk side by side with the caregiver. So if there's something that we feel that the veterinarian should be involved in, then our advice is, "Yes, this is really important. You need to speak to your vet about that."

They may wish to prescribe. They may have a different idea for you, a different avenue for you to explore. But just realizing that hospice care, whether you've got two legs or four legs as your client, it's all about teamwork and it's bringing together other specialties. What's been really interesting for me, is that teamwork now is actually sometimes in one of our students because they come to us with two, three, four, or more other qualifications. They bring the work of hospice in. Their passion ignites, so they stay in the hospice lane but then they have all these other fields of experience. It's the icing on the cake, isn't it?

Karen Wylie: It really is, I think that's one of the most important things that we can say about our students and graduates, is that the certified animal hospice practitioner fills a space or holds a space that almost no one else in a pet parent's life is equipped to fill. 

If we think of it, a vet visit is generally 15 or 20 minutes long these days. Caregiving as any of us who loves our pet knows, caregiving is a 24-hour-a-day love that you give. All of that time in between, the fear, all the questions you have, some of the days that are so difficult, that's where a hospice practitioner lives.

That's where they can help you out and support you. So Gail, if you were speaking directly to a pet parent now who is in the middle of what may be a particularly difficult season of care with their pet, what would you want them to know about what a certified animal hospice practitioner could mean for them?

Gail Pope: Well, it would probably be, depending on the person, depending on the situation the bottom line of that message would be, "I'm here to walk beside you. If there's something you don't know, can't understand, would like to learn about, I may be able to help you. I may be able to refer you to somebody who I know can help you better than I can."

Maybe for instance, in the subject of grief. I'm exceedingly experienced in all areas of grief, however, I'm not qualified in some areas to really offer what may be needed but I know who would be. So I can recommend and say, "I've walked beside you as far as this but I really think that here, somebody else could be of more help to you."

So I think it's, as you said, staying in our lane, explaining to the new client just what we can do and what we can't do. That we know we will be whatever they need us to be. That is being there for them, and it doesn't have to be booked appointments on a particular schedule. It can be just one appointment, and then you can come back at any time if you wish to have an appointment. We can fit into whatever your schedule is, and let's face it, for most caregivers, they don't know. They need help now to talk about this.

But then once they start to understand and I guess step off the ledge, they step back realizing, "Oh, my God, it's not right now. I can learn, and yes, I can do this. Oh, wow! Yes, that makes sense." 

So day by day, things change. They may need no more help because now their perspective has shifted. Or they may need to speak once a week, or they may need to email a quick, "Oh, this happened. Do you think I should worry about it?" And depending on what “this” may be, it may be one of those cases where I say, "You need to share this with your veterinarian and get more advice." So you know, there's no black or white in hospice care.

Karen Wylie: No, there's as we have said at various times, when it comes to matters of life and death, there is no such thing as black and white. It's always shades of gray. Just as we were saying earlier that hospice practitioners can come from so many different diverse fields. What a particular pet parent and that pet may need can be very different and usually is very different. So it's individual.

Gail Pope: They have lots of hats, so they take the one hat off and put another hat on, right?

Karen Wylie: Yes, that's true. Very true, and you're the master at that. I really want to say that the last few months of doing this advanced training with you has reminded me once again why this work matters so very deeply, because you bring something to every student that no curriculum can teach.

The lived experience of having sat with hundreds of animals as they made their transition and the absolute conviction that every life and every death deserves to be honored. 

I always feel that we're so fortunate that you chose to be one of the co-founders of Animal Hospice Group and to continue to participate in this training because no one has the perspective that you do.

Gail Pope: Wow, thank you. All I can say is that I love it so much because I love learning. Although I'm supposed to be a teacher, it's just such a beautiful balance because it really is the variety of knowledge, understanding, and the experiences that everybody brings to the table. I guess in the first part of the curriculum, we share our knowledge in that way. But then once they step to the next level, it's caring and sharing and growing, and we all grow together.

Karen Wylie: Absolutely.

Gail Pope: And it's fun. I think somebody said to me recently, "I didn't know talking about death and dying could be such fun." But it is. It really is because it is all about life and living.

Karen Wylie: Life and living and loving our pets.

Gail Pope: LLL.

Karen Wylie: There we go, the triple L. It's what brings all of us to this work, is our love of our own animals, which then we want to extend to other animals and other caregivers like ourselves. 

We start teaching the language with the lectures so everyone has a common language to understand the field, but then we try to bring the best of adult learning to the program because people come with many decades of experience and expertise.

Gail, as what you were saying earlier, they can have many different certifications and areas of their work and it's important that we learn from them and what those experiences can bring to the field of animal hospice. I do want to say to our new CAHPs who graduated officially yesterday, we are so proud of you! Go do this beautiful work.

And to our listeners, thank you as always for being here. If today's conversation has opened a door for you, whether you are wondering who might support you or how to find an animal hospice practitioner or you're quietly wondering if you might be someone who belongs in this work, I hope you will follow that feeling.

The world needs more people who are willing to show up for animals and their families in these most tender moments in our lives. We at BrightHaven Caregiver Academy and Animal Hospice Group are here to help make that happen.

Gail Pope: I've got a final thing that I want to say as well.

Karen Wylie: You go ahead.

Gail Pope: I’ve got to butt in here. What's important that we haven't actually shared is that some of our students are going out into the world with their credentials, and their work is exclusively online. Others, actually, their focus is local. They're working with a local veterinarian perhaps, and offering services that way. 

For instance, I recall the conversations that we've had about pet sitters. Think about all their clients and as their animals are aging and they're starting to absorb the knowledge of hospice care, having somebody local is just as doable. 

It's a small but gradually growing area where you find yourself in a situation where you need some help and then you find a local organization, a local group who can actually step in and help. The more this grows and the more people who learn and are able to help people in their own area, isn't that lovely?

Karen Wylie: It's wonderful.

Gail Pope: I'll let you finish up now then. Goodbye.

Karen Wylie: All I was going to say was until next time. Take good care of yourself and your animals and you are not alone in this journey ever, not for a single minute. Thank you. Bye-bye.

Gail Pope: Goodbye, everyone.