An organization can offer mental health resources and still have employees who struggle to access them.
Sometimes the difficulty is practical. Shift schedules, unpredictable calls, and competing responsibilities make it difficult to attend appointments or participate in programs.
Other barriers involve concerns about privacy, professional reputation, or uncertainty about what accessing support might mean.
Researchers at the University of British Columbia examined whether bringing therapy dogs directly into a police detachment could provide an accessible workplace wellness opportunity.
The participation numbers from their original pilot are worth considering.
One in Three Employees Participated
During an eight-week pilot at the Kelowna RCMP Detachment, 120 individual employees participated in the therapy dog program.
The detachment had approximately 375 employees, meaning 32% of the workforce attended at least once.
Those employees made 251 visits altogether, indicating that some returned for additional sessions.
The researchers also reported that approximately 125 employees were physically present in the building on a typical day.
That detail is important. The program was available within a workplace operating across different shifts and schedules, rather than to all 375 employees simultaneously.
The 32% figure describes participation across the full workforce. It should not be interpreted as the proportion of employees who needed mental health treatment.
Bringing Wellness Into the Workplace
The therapy dog teams visited the detachment for 90-minute sessions each week.
Employees could participate during their working day and decide how long they wanted to stay.
This arrangement reduced some of the practical effort involved in accessing a wellness activity.
There was no need to travel to another location, arrange a separate appointment, or commit to a lengthy session.
For some employees, the informal nature of the program may also have made participation more appealing.
However, the research did not directly establish why every employee chose to attend or whether the visits changed their willingness to seek clinical mental health care.
What Facility Dog Programs Can Offer
A facility dog program can be designed to fit within existing workplace routines.
Scheduled drop-in sessions, brief visits during shift changes, and structured group activities can provide opportunities for employees to participate without making substantial changes to their day.
Where a facility dog works alongside a qualified mental health professional, the program may also create opportunities to learn about available services.
Those interactions require clear boundaries.
Employees should understand whether they are participating in a recreational wellness activity, receiving clinical services, or speaking informally with a professional. Confidentiality expectations must be explained rather than assumed.
Participation should remain voluntary, and employees must have access to mental health resources regardless of whether they are comfortable around dogs.
Measuring Accessibility
Attendance is a useful measure of whether employees are engaging with a program.
It does not tell us whether the program is improving mental health, reaching those who need support most, or reducing barriers to treatment.
A comprehensive evaluation might also examine participant experiences, reasons for nonparticipation, perceived accessibility, referrals, and longer-term outcomes.
The Kelowna study demonstrates that an on-site canine-assisted intervention attracted participation from a substantial portion of one police detachment.
For organizations developing mental health services, the finding reinforces an important consideration: the design and accessibility of a program can influence whether people have an opportunity to use it.
References
Binfet, J.-T., Draper, Z. A., & Green, F. L. L. (2020). Stress reduction in law enforcement officers and staff through a canine-assisted intervention. Human-Animal Interaction Bulletin, 8(2), 34–52. https://doi.org/10.1079/hai.2020.0011
Green, F. L. L., & Binfet, J.-T. (2021). Therapy dogs, stress-reduction, and well-being within the detachment: Interviews with law-enforcement personnel. Human-Animal Interaction Bulletin, 11(1), 10–35. https://doi.org/10.1079/hai.2021.0018
