Bean has a job, and he takes it seriously.
When his volunteer handler, Joan Teno, MD, MS, pauses between visits at the HopeHealth Hulitar Hospice Center to complete her paperwork, Bean — a 10-year-old labradoodle and certified therapy dog — doesn’t take a break.
“Bean will sit at my feet, staring out into the hall, trying to see who we can encourage to come see him,” Joan says. “He’s always on the lookout for someone to say hi to.”
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A dog who works the room
Bean’s rounds take him throughout the Hulitar Center, the only freestanding hospice center in Rhode Island. Here, patients receive around-the-clock symptom management in a building designed to feel peaceful and personal. Rooms open onto a shared family room, kitchen and terrace, and visitors — including pets — are welcome any hour of the day or night.
“It’s such a gift to the state of Rhode Island to have this resource,” Joan says.
Bean and Joan are a familiar sight. They’ve been volunteering here since 2023, usually on weekends. For a patient or family member, that might mean a few minutes petting Bean from a chair, or Joan lifting him up beside a patient in bed, with an appropriate barrier. Sometimes he gives kisses; sometimes he simply sits, letting the moment be whatever it needs to be.
Their visits are one small part of the support that surrounds patients and families at the Hulitar Center. Physicians, nurses, social workers, chaplains and other professionals provide clinical and emotional care. Volunteers bring another kind of presence, whether through companionship or therapy animals like Bean.
“Having Bean in the room just changes the tone of everything,” Joan says. “It allows someone to focus on the moment, and get some relief from what can be a very difficult event.”
A visit with Bean might give a patient something else to focus on while pain medication begins to take effect. A family member might sit on the floor and pet him during an overwhelming day. Just having an animal in the room can make it easier for people to connect.
“In those moments, people can often interact with animals much more easily, and share themselves more easily, than they can with other family members and healthcare professionals,” Joan says.
> Read: “I hope I can pay this forward”: A hospice volunteer’s lasting impact
“He wasn’t afraid when the dog was there”
Over the years, Joan has seen that comfort become part of what families remember about the end of a loved one’s life.
Before she and Bean began volunteering together, Joan spent a long career as a hospice clinician and researcher, including decades at HopeHealth. Back in 2008, she got a call to fill in as director of the inpatient unit. The only hitch: She’d just adopted an eight-week-old puppy named Moki, who needed supervision. So she got special permission to bring him with her.
Right away, the puppy became a favorite among patients, families and staff. One family would ask for “Moki breaks” — time just to play with him or watch him run around the family conference room.
One patient’s daughter asked Joan to take a photograph of her father with Moki.
“She loved that picture,” Joan says. “She told me that every time she looked at it, it reminded her that, at the end of his life, her father wasn’t afraid. Because she knew he wasn’t afraid when the dog was there.”
What stays with a family
Now, with his weekends at the Hulitar Center, Bean is following in Moki’s tracks.
“What I love about Bean is he works the room,” Joan says. “He’ll go from family member to family member, say hi, then go back and do it again.”
Not long ago, Joan and Bean were making their weekend rounds when a patient died. In their grief, the family asked for Bean.
“I brought Bean into the room, and the family got on the floor to hug him,” Joan says. “He kissed them, he let them pet him, he just sat there and took it in.”
This is part of what a therapy animal can offer in the world of hospice: not a way to take sadness or grief away, but a way to find hope within it.
“The beauty of dogs is they’re always in the moment,” she says. “Sometimes we need that.”
To learn more about volunteering with HopeHealth, visit hopehealthco.org/volunteer.