Media Releases

U of T’s science and health sciences library hosts therapy dog for exam stress relief

December 5, 2012

TORONTO, ON – The Uni­ver­si­ty of Toronto’s Ger­stein Sci­ence Infor­ma­tion Cen­tre will host Bel­la, a St. John Ambu­lance Ther­a­py Dog, to pro­vide stressed out stu­dents with a lit­tle relief around exam time. Bel­la will be at Ger­stein from 1:30–3:00 pm on Decem­ber 5, 6, 12 and 13.

Sim­i­lar pro­grams have been imple­ment­ed at Har­vard, Yale, McGill and Dal­housie, among oth­ers. Dogs (and oth­er ani­mals) have been shown to reduce blood pres­sure, cor­ti­sol pro­duc­tion, and stress and anx­i­ety in gen­er­al. As the Sci­ence and Health Sci­ences library on cam­pus, Ger­stein staff felt this was a great way to use sci­en­tif­ic evi­dence to design a pro­gram for the ben­e­fit of all U of T stu­dents!

Bella’s first two intro­duc­to­ry vis­its dur­ing the last week of Novem­ber were very well received and she greet­ed over 75 staff and stu­dents! For more infor­ma­tion about Bella’s vis­its, please vis­it us in per­son, find us on Face­book, or email ask.gerstein@utoronto.ca.

EVENT DETAILS

WHAT: Bel­la, a St. John Ambu­lance Ther­a­py Dog, will vis­it stu­dents for exam stress relief

WHERE: Mar­vin Ger­stein Room (1st Floor), Ger­stein Sci­ence Infor­ma­tion Cen­tre,
9 King’s Col­lege Cir­cle, Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to

WHEN: Wednes­day, Decem­ber 5 & Thurs­day, Decem­ber 6 — 1:30–3:00 pm

Wednes­day Decem­ber 12 & Thurs­day, Decem­ber 13 — 1:30–3:00 pm

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For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:

Alli­son Bell
Coor­di­na­tor, Ref­er­ence Coor­di­na­tor, Ref­er­ence & Research Unit
Ger­stein Sci­ence Infor­ma­tion Cen­tre
Tel: 416–978-7676
allison.bell@utoronto.ca