Foster dog at dispatch center helps animal, workers cope

Nearly every call they receive is someone having one of the worst days of their lives.

At least two people who work as 911 dispatchers in Johnson County have heard someone kill themselves over the phone.

On the first night of one dispatcher’s job, he heard a woman being shot by her ex-boyfriend. Dispatchers have taken phone calls about toddlers dying in fires and toddlers being involved in accidents.

The stress of talking to and helping people in crises day after day can take its toll. But, the 911 director and the director of animal control believe they have found a way to help the workers combat their stress. 

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A shepherd pointer mix dog named Lincoln is currently living at the communications center in Franklin as a way to help dispatch workers with their stress during the job. And the love and attention he is getting from dispatchers is helping ready Lincoln for an adoptive family.

Lincoln lives in the dispatch center where there are dispatchers 24 hours a day. Workers will interact with and care for Lincoln until Lincoln is adopted. Then, another dog will take Lincoln’s place.

911 dispatchers answer the phone when someone calls 911 for help. Dispatchers send out appropriate first responders to help the people in the situations. Every 911 call in the county is filtered through the communications center in Franklin.

"Just about everyone we talk to is having the worst day of their life," said Heath Brant, 911 director.

Brant got the idea from the director of the dispatch center where the Sandy Hook shooting took place. Internet forums and message boards geared toward 911 dispatchers have addressed questions regarding taking on dogs and the idea is well documented, he said.

Statistics show that 911 dispatchers have post traumatic stress syndrome at rates similar to police officers and fire fighters. Dispatchers have a rest lounge they can retreat to to regroup if they have had a particularly difficult call. They can also take walks and find moments to themselves to deal with job stress, Brant said.

"No one is calling us because they are having a good day," he said.

Having Lincoln adds another layer of stress relief.

Lincoln has lived at the dispatch center for about a week and a half and is settling into his foster home.

Each dispatcher that comes in is usually greeted by him and he has learned to recognize shift changes and will wait next to the door for each employee, Brant said. 

"He is the first thing they see when they walk in the door," he said.

His bed is in the hub of the center and he spends his days going from dispatcher to dispatcher getting hugged and petted and darting in and out of the offices in the center. Dispatchers pick up balls and toys and try to engage Lincoln in play and walk him on their lunch break or after a particularly stressful call.

Everyone calling a dispatcher needs immediate action and attention. Lincoln just wants petted and a few minutes of attention, which is a stress buster, dispatcher Traci Cox said.

"You can go and sit on the floor with him for a bit or take him out for a run," she said. "You can get that little kiss on the cheek and be back at it."

Lincoln living with the dispatchers is helping him too, Brant and Michael Delp, director of Johnson County Animal Control, said.

Animal control workers received multiple calls last year regarding a stray white dog that was roaming near 84 Lumber in Greenwood.

Workers tried their usual methods to lure the dog to them. None worked. They called in Friends of Indianapolis Dog Outside, a non-profit agency that helps dogs, who finally caught the dog in December and took him to the Johnson County Animal Shelter.

Shelter workers named him Lincoln, to allude to his penchant for hanging around a lumber yard. He is named after the famed Lincoln Logs toy, which has children building a wood cabin out of little wooden logs.

Delp suspects Lincoln may have been abused and no owner stepped up to claim him. He lived in the shelter for a month before transitioning over to the dispatch center. A shelter worker took him home for the weekend to make sure he could make the transition, Delp said.

The dispatch center went through the same process all animal foster homes undergo and Lincoln was given all the vaccinations he would need. Commissioners, who appointed both Delp and Brant to their posts, approved of the idea and Lincoln moved into his new home.

Now he spends his days cheering up dispatchers until he is formally adopted from the Johnson County Animal Shelter.

"We know we will lose him, but he deserves a home," Brant said.