OU Tulsa Honors Special VA Hospital Employee

March is Social Work Month. The largest employer of social workers is the Veterans Administration.

The VA hospital in Muskogee has 40 social workers on its staff and one special one was honored Tuesday at OU Tulsa. The honoree is Honor, a two-year-old Golden Retriever who patrols the halls of the VA Hospital in Muskogee.

She got a certificate of appreciation from OU Tulsa for her work at the VA. She visits patients and the veterans open up to her.

Dogs aren’t judgmental and sometimes that’s all it takes to get things going. Honor was born missing a portion of one paw, and that’s often a connection with some vets.

“'Oh, I’m missing a leg too', and that just opens the conversation," said Terri Woodsworth, the director of social work at the hospital.

OU Tulsa has it’s own resident service dog, Niko, aka Professor Paws. He teaches students and community groups about service dogs.

“Teaching them about what service dogs can do, showing them what service dogs can do,” Says Dr. Mary Isaacson of OU Tulsa’s Occupational Therapy department.