Animal Caregiver Support ProgramWhen the goal of care shifts from cure to comfort, tools and guidance from our AHELP Comprehensive Care Team will care for you as you care for your animal. Our “care for the caregiver” will allow you to adapt to twists and turns in the end-of-life journey. Quality of life for your dog, cat or horse is maximized as we work within the veterinary care plan with regular check-ins, tools for planning, tips for home care and strategies to help you navigate as issues come up. We ensure communication through interdisciplinary teamwork principles. Professional Network family service providers help you cope with daily challenges, assuring your confident caregiving. Professional counselors offer your family grief and bereavement support. Your Care Team is there for you with "A Help" when you most need it with 24/7 weekday availability and on weekends, too.
Comfort. Choices. Empowerment.
Help your animal companion achieve COMFORT by building a solid plan with a veterinarian, or vet tech who first consults with your regular vet. AHELP's Comprehensive Care Home Visits are centered around your animal companion and your entire family's circumstances. Your AHELP Care Team will include an AHELP Care Coordinator who is a professional counselor, an AHELPer volunteer who is assigned only to you and a veterinarian best suited to your situation. You will have access our spiritual counselor through personal phone visits and our monthly Seattle Support Circle.
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What you can Expect
With veterinary recommendations from your animal companion's quality of life assessment, you and your Care Team will evaluate your choices and build a plan according to your wishes. When the appropriate times come, the AHELP Care Team will support you in your decision making and assist while you enact the steps in that plan. You will feel the satisfaction that comes in knowing that you paid a worthy tribute to the life shared with your animal companion. You'll likely describe the experience of providing this care as transformative, empowering, and true to your love for them.
Through this process of achieving comfort and quality of life, weighing your choices, visualizing your journey, and being empowered to act on your plans at the appropriate times, you will be most likely be able to follow your "path of least regrets." Healing from the inevitable loss of your animal family member comes naturally and at your own pace.
WHAT DO I DO NEXT?
- Use the buttons below to access assistance through AHELP's Animal Caregiver Support Program!
- Please take a few minutes to complete the short form and tell us how we can be "A Help."
- We will call you for a 30-45 minute complimentary phone call.
We are also available for phone consults and email support. Distance consulting may be a good choice if you are outside greater Seattle or have an urgent need and don't know where to turn. We respond faster over email than phone and do our best to reply within 12 hours, within 24 hours on weekends and holidays. You may contact Michelle Nichols at:
(425) 223-5722
Do you need a referral? Learn more about our Professional Network Members, veterinary, animal and family service providers who are invited to join AHELP based upon excellent reputation and have meet our application criteria. We feel comfortable entrusting you to their care because of the many good experiences of families we've helped. Referrals over email are offered as a community service, available to you on a donations-only basis.
With our interdisciplinary team, our practices are in accordance with the 2013 Guidelines through the International Association of Animal Hospice and Palliative Care and those through the American Animal Hospital Association. Consider asking your veterinarian if they offer animal hospice and palliative care and if not, we can partner with them. If you are a veterinarian or service provider, please consider joining our Professional Network.
Please review our Upcoming Events page to learn more about our monthly Animal Caregivers' Support Circle in Seattle. This community service is made available through your donations and formats rotate between comforting, information, and healing workshops. Our facilitators are spiritual or certified pet loss counseling professionals with experience in animal end-of-life care. Also, meet with other caregivers and families that are going through the same process.
Reach out today! Please allow us to make more of a difference with your earlier contact.
Please see the Fees and Pricing page for more on our Comprehensive Care Home Visits and Phone Consultations.
