Orlando Health Melbourne Hospital Launches First Pet Therapy Program in Brevard County

MELBOURNE, Fla. (May 1, 2026) — With the snap of a blue Orlando Health neckerchief and the clip of a small badge onto her harness, Chloe eagerly awaits what comes next. Her tail wags.

“It’s time to go to work,” says Chloe’s dad and Orlando Health EMS liaison Garrett Lamp, who brings Chloe for scheduled 2-hour volunteer shifts at both Orlando Health Melbourne Hospital and Orlando Health Sebastian River Hospital as part of the organization’s new pet therapy program.

Lamp has witnessed Chloe’s impact time and again. When the 2-year-old German Shepherd enters a room, heads lift. Shoulders relax. Smiles spread.

“This is exactly what I needed today,” is a phrase Lamp says he hears often as Chloe leans in for gentle snuggles with patients, visitors and team members alike.

Studies show that interaction with certified therapy dogs can reduce patient anxiety by up to 35%, making pet therapy a powerful tool in lowering stress inside high-pressure healthcare environments. This new program brings trained therapy dogs into the hospital to provide comfort, connection, and moments of calm when they’re needed most.

For patients, visitors and caregivers, Chloe’s presence marks the arrival of Brevard and Indian River counties’ first hospital‑based pet therapy program — launched last fall at Orlando Health Sebastian River Hospital and expanding to Melbourne this spring.

Led by the Orlando Health East Region Well-Being Team, the program introduces trained, certified therapy dogs into clinical spaces to ease anxiety and promote emotional well‑being in one of life’s most vulnerable moments.

“Healing isn’t just physical - it’s emotional,” said Alejandra Velasquez‑Perez, Orlando Health Pet Therapy Program East Region coordinator. “We consistently see how quickly a simple pet interaction can shift someone’s experience. When a therapy dog enters a room, patients relax, staff pause for a moment and blood pressure lowers. Those small moments of comfort and connection can mean everything during an overwhelming time.”

After three decades on the front lines as a firefighter‑paramedic, Lamp understands firsthand how heavy high‑stress days can be—for both patients and the professionals who care for them.

“Emergency rooms are stressful environments filled with intense situations,” Lamp said. “By bringing a dog right into that space, you can literally watch the stress melt away. People smile. It instantly de‑escalates the anxiety of the moment for our first responders in the emergency department and prevents that build up, which is so important.”

Now, Lamp works from the hospital’s EMS lounge—an area designed to help first responders decompress following demanding calls. When Chloe joins him in the lounge, her work looks a little different than a traditional therapy round in the hospital. In the EMS lounge, she provides steady, familiar comfort to first responders who understand stress all too well.

“We always start with our team members,” Lamp said. “They deal with high‑stress situations day in and day out. If I can bring Chloe in and help them reset, even for a few minutes, that matters. Ony then can they pour into others.”

Those moments of connection extend to patients when Chloe visits patients during her 2-hour volunteer session. Lamp recalls a third‑floor patient, a retired veterinarian who could no longer care for animals anymore, but his eyes lit up when Chloe trotted in the room.

“He spent his whole career taking care of animals,” Lamp said. “Now Chloe is taking care of him. He even commented on how nice Chloe’s teeth were, still engaging and using his skills from his career.”

Orlando Health’s pet therapy program began in 1991 and has grown systemwide to include 86 active therapy teams. The expansion to the East Region six months ago extends that legacy, with three dogs now serving the area — Chloe, Kevin the Great Pyrenees and Dolly the Golden Retriever.

Lamp and Chloe trained together for roughly six months, before earning the Advanced Canine Good Citizenship through the American Kennel Club and Pet Therapy Certification from the Alliance of Therapy Dogs. They completed Orlando Health’s Pet Therapy Onboarding process in March and started volunteering shortly thereafter.

For Lamp, the impact is deeply personal.

“It’s about helping one another,” Lamp said. “If having her around helps someone get through a tough day, that’s a win.”

Orlando Health encourages community members interested in becoming pet therapy volunteers to visit the organization’s Pet Therapy Program webpage to learn about eligibility requirements and certification steps to volunteer or to donate.

About Orlando Health

Orlando Health is a private not-for-profit, integrated academic healthcare system with $14 billion of assets under management, that serves the southeastern United States – including Florida and Alabama – and Puerto Rico. With corporate offices in Orlando, Florida the system provides a complete continuum of care across a network of medical centers and institutes, community and specialty hospitals, physician practices, urgent care facilities, skilled nursing facilities, home healthcare, and long-term and behavioral health care services. Founded more than 100 years ago, Orlando Health’s mission is to improve the health and the quality of life of the individuals and communities we serve. The system provided nearly $2 billion in community impact in the form of community benefit programs and services, Medicare shortfalls, bad debt, community-building activities and capital investments in FY 24, the most recent period for which the information is available. For more information, visit orlandohealth.com, or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and X.