The Plymouth County Comfort Dog Program

The Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office (PCDAO) seeks to strengthen the Plymouth County Comfort Dog Program. The goal of this project is to reduce the impact of illicit opioids, stimulants, and other substances on youth and families. The objectives of the project are to: (1) enhance the depth and quality of collaboration between law enforcement, service providers, and school systems; (2) expand substance use education and prevention programming that connects law enforcement with youth; (3) increase access to drug take-back programs for the community at-large; and (4) conduct evaluation to assess program impact.  
 
Project activities include the deployment of five new comfort dogs; maintenance of the 22 current comfort dogs and the five new dogs; training for comfort dog handlers to increase capacity and service referrals for at-risk youth and drug-endangered children; deployment of various prevention interventions in schools and on college campuses; additional Drug Take Back days at police stations; and ongoing evaluation and assessment of the overall impact of the Comfort Dog Program. The PCDAO will subaward funding to High Point Treatment Center to host an annual youth-led Prevention Conference. Additionally, the PCDAO will subaward funding to Bridgewater State University to conduct the research study of the Comfort Dog Program.  
 
The PCDAO expects that the objectives and activities within this project will help the field at-large to better understand the applicability of animal-assisted interventions in substance use prevention intervention efforts.