The Delta Society® mission is to improve human health through service and therapy animals. Our primary goals are to: 1)expand awareness of the positive effect animals can have on human health and development, 2)remove barriers that prevent involvement of animals in everyday life, and 3)expand the therapeutic and service role of animals in human health, service, and education.

Description:
Delta Society is an international organization, headquartered in Bellevue, WA. We have more than 8,000 volunteers who participate in our Pet Partners program - taking their Delta Society registered pets to nursing homes, long-term care facilities, hospitals, and other patient care facilities. Research has proven that the presence of an animal can reduce blood pressure, decrease stress and take away a sense of loneliness. Additionally, many times having a therapy animal on site encourages patients to complete physical therapy exercises - it may not be fun for someone to do hand exercises, but throwing a ball to a dog sure is fun (and exercises those hand muscles).
Pet Partner teams also participate in the READ program, which lets children read to a dog, which ultimately increases the children's reading ability as well as increases their self-confidence to read out loud in class or elsewhere.

History:
The Delta Foundation was established in 1977. The founders wanted to understand the quality of the relationship between pet owners, pets, and care givers, both human and veterinary, (hence the "delta" name based on this triangle). At that time, pets were widely considered luxury or throwaway items, not of central importance to individual health and well-being. Delta's early years focused on funding the first credible research on why animals are important to the general population and specifically how they affect health and well being. Early Delta members were primarily from the veterinary and human health professions and from university faculties.

Once the importance of animals in everyday lives was established from this research, Delta began to look at how animals can change the lives of people who are ill and disabled. In the late 1980s, Delta began creating educational materials to apply the scientific information in everyday life. Membership expanded to pet owners and a broader general public.

In the 1990's, Delta built on its scientific and educational base to provide direct services at the local level. This includes providing the first comprehensive training in animal-assisted activities and therapy to volunteers and health care professionals. A significant advance was the development of the Standards of Practice in Animal-Assisted Activities and Animal-Assisted Therapy, which provides guidance in the administrative structure of AAA/T programs, including animal selection, personnel training, treatment plan development, documentation and more.

One of Delta's strengths continues to be the development of standards-based training materials. We identify subject matter experts and work with them to create, rigorously pilot and revise, and then implement training.

Contact people:

Dianne Bell, Program Manager, (phone), (email) JoAnn Turnbull, (phone), (email)

Office fax number: (425) 679-5539

Address:

875 124th Ave NE, Suite 100 Bellevue, WA 98005 This location is handicap accessible (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.deltasociety.org

Miscellaneous Information

Liability
	Yes
Does your organization welcome court-ordered community service volunteers?
	No
Does your organization have volunteer positions for youth 12-18?
	No