Animal-Assisted Therapy: Uncommon Therapy with Amazing Results

It has never been a secret that animals bring a certain joy to people. Take a look around you. How many people do you know own pets? But what we may not know or take for granted is that animals are also uniquely gifted to aid in therapy situations.

Nursing Homes

Ask an older person what their greatest fear is. The answer may very well be that they do not want to enter a nursing home and become useless. Nursing homes have a reputation of being the last stop on life's train- and for good reason. Many people enter the nursing home unable to care for themselves and become depressed. Depression ultimately leads to poorer health and eventual death.

At the New Haven Convalescent Home in Connecticut, residents are greeted not just by a caring staff but also by a menagerie of animals. Nurses assigned to the home bring their pets and many animals live full-time in the home with the residents. Dr. Sandell, the director of the home, has cited several cases in which residents have improved in their overall health and well being since becoming caretakers of animals.

Ken Whitehouse is one of those residents. According to the New York Times article, Whitehouse became very depressed and would not leave his room upon entering the convalescent home. Dr. Sandell asked him to care for a mutt named Lucy. The turnaround was amazing. Whitehouse had a reason to get up in the mornings and his health stabilized. The formerly taciturn man has come out of his shell. George Whitney, the veterinarian assigned to the home, attributes the change to endorphins. Endorphins is the substance in the brain released when a pleasurable experience, such as caring for an animal, happens. Endorphins are credited with lowering blood pressure, alleviating depression, and lowering pain levels.

The nursing home has conceded that there are drawbacks to animals in the home but with a good plan of action, they have overcome the obstacles. Accidents sometimes happen and the maintenance staff has to be quick on the clean up to prevent residents from slipping and falling. Animals must be kept out of food preparation areas due to health code rules. And residents with allergies have to be segregated from the rest of the group. However, residents with allergies have a special friend in Blossom, a pet pig whose owner, a nurse at the home, says is hypoallergenic.

Children with Special Needs

Why do you love coming home to your pet? Perhaps it is that unconditional love the animal gives you. Pets see no faults, no disability and have no agenda. What better therapy for a child with disabilities than animal assisted?

Micah is a boy who born with cerebral palsy. He has a wonderful family and an exceptional place to go for his therapy. Nature's Edge Therapy in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, offers children with a myriad of health issues a way to heal or rehabilitate. Micah goes to Hippo Therapy, which is therapy on horseback. This type of therapy helps to limber up his muscles that are extremely tight forcing his hips to grow out of socket. The horseback therapy helps to alleviate this condition, also known as spasticity. For those who cannot walk, horseback riding gives a person independence they do not have in their wheelchairs. It also helps aid in balance and confidence.

Birds are used in a not-so-common method of speech therapy. In order to encourage her patients to speak clearly, speech pathologist Becky Lundeen, uses Cheerio, an African Gray Parrot. It is a unique way for children and adults to concentrate on learning to pronounce their words properly when attempting to teach the bird to do the same.

Nature's Edge Therapy also offers tactile remedies with chinchillas, a rodent and one of the softest animals you will ever touch. The chinchilla is also used to help children with limited arm mobility. They have to reach out and work their arm in order to pet the animal.

Micah's mom, Rachel, feels that children with special needs identify with the animals at Nature's Edge. Many animals on the property are also recovering from injuries. There is a goat with an ear bitten off and a three-legged dog. Rachel says that the children feel more comfortable with animal therapy not just because of the connection they feel to the wounded animal, but also because animals will not laugh at you or get impatient with you.

Inner-City Solutions

This American Life, with host Ira Glass, is a fascinating look into everyday lives of people living extraordinarily. The show, which airs on Showtime, gave a glimpse into a unique way of solving the crisis that face the young men living in North Philadelphia.

There is a small group of teenagers who meet in the early hours of the morning to ride- on horseback. The small stable is located in one of the worst sections of town. The boys say they take some teasing for riding but more often than not, they are envied. Caring for the horses and riding gets them out of the war zones they call neighborhoods and out of potentially bad situations.

According to the University of Minnesota, animals have been proven to aid not only in the health and well being of special needs people and the elderly, but also for those people who live in fear in the inner cities. The calming effect of handling animals has soothed more children from the sound of gunshots at night than any psychiatrist could.

In the situation of the boys of North Philly, the stable owner says the boys have become more reliable and confident as a result of their duties to care for the horses. They are not simply allowed to saddle up and ride. The boys have to muck out stalls, curry the horses, feed them, et cetera. It builds a level of responsibility that they might not have otherwise been given. As for the owner of the horses, he did not start this as an outreach. The boys just migrated to him and the rest is history.

Animals seem to have a calming effect on people that no one ever predicted. Studies are finding that those who own pets tend to live longer and are healthier. Author George Eliot once wrote, "Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms." What a great statement about nature's perfect therapy assistants.

Sources

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9A0DE1DA1730F932A35755C0A960948260

http://www.censhare.umn.edu/AAT.html

http://www.naturesedgetherapycenter.org/

http://seat42f.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2228&Itemid=191

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/TV_Season.aspx

http://en.thinkexist.com/quotations/animals/