Stressed offshore staff at Aberdeen heliport will get a guiding paw earlier than heading off to the rigs – with a canine crew recruited to assist them with any pre-flight nerves.
Scottish Charity Canine Concern Scotland Trust has arrange the ‘Helipets’ scheme working alongside all 4 heliport organisations within the Granite City.
The ‘paw-troll’ are set to go to the terminals with the principle goal of enjoyable riggers forward of their travels to the North Sea.
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The initiative follows the success of the prevailing Canine Crew duties at Aberdeen Airport and the primary to welcome the canine crew of pups and their accompanying handlers might be Offshore Helicopter Services (OHS).
A white paper issued final yr discovered that 40% of oil rig staff skilled suicidal ideas some or on a regular basis whereas on obligation, and that offshore staff are 15 occasions extra more likely to commit suicide than these onshore.
OHS, which transports 1500 outbound passengers every week, will welcome a crew of two as soon as every week for 2 hours to work together with passengers.
Therapets itself has a workforce of 32 volunteers, which work in groups of 4, permitting to accommodate eight volunteers per week, per heliport.
Diane Wood, chair of the board of administrators, and space rep for Aberdeenshire North acknowledged: “We are completely delighted to launch Helipets in Aberdeen, it’s a pure development from the initiative at Aberdeen Airport. I’ve skilled first-hand how the
Therapets present a optimistic expertise together with these coping with psychological well being challenges because the dogs promote calmness and rest.
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“Research exhibits that working away from home and in a fault illiberal setting is very traumatic. A Helipets go to can have a optimistic influence on the pre-flight expertise.”
OHS business providers supervisor Michelle McCombie stated: “It is nice information that we have now been capable of welcome Helipets to the workforce.
“For a very long time, we have now recognized that pets are good for us, that the mere motion of stroking a canine slows down the guts charge and reduces blood strain. We hope that bringing the Helipets dogs into our passenger terminals might be a welcome distraction for our passengers who’re nervous travelling offshore, and for our colleagues at our Aberdeen services.”
