MSNBC Pets give patients a paw up on recovery

[Guest guest]

Pets give patients a paw up on

recovery

As pet therapy grows in popularity, a range of animals worthy of

Noah's Ark is making the rounds in hospitals â? " everything

from miniature horses, pot-bellied pigs and pigmy goats, to pet

chickens, hamsters and llamas.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5453368/

 

 

Pets give patients

a paw up on recovery

More animals

making the rounds at hospitals

 

By Molly

Masland

Health Editor

MSNBC

Updated: 12:39

p.m. ET July 19, 2004

Imagine being laid

up in a hospital and, as you're wheeled down the sterile hallway,

along strolls a three-foot-tall horse wearing yellow rubber booties

and a backpack full of daisies. No, you're not having a

morphine-induced hallucination, you haven't died and landed in some

kind of surreal Barnum & Bailey heaven. You've just met Lucky

Boy, one of the thousands of animals making the rounds at hospitals

across the United States.

 

Fifteen years ago

it used to be unusual to see a dog or cat in a hospital, but now even

miniature horses like Lucky Boy are lumbering down the corridors. And

as animal-assisted therapy continues to grow in popularity, a range of

pets worthy of Noah's Ark is turning up in medical centers -

everything from pot-bellied pigs, pigmy goats and parrots, to pet

chickens, giant rats and llamas.

 

'Animals motivate people'

The greater presence of animals in health-care settings comes amid

increasing evidence that pets are good for us and can play a

significant role in patients' recovery. Sometimes known as " pet

therapy, " animal-assisted therapy and activities have become an

important tool for doctors and rehabilitation specialists.

 

" Animals motivate people to participate in their therapies,

brighten patients' days, give them a chance to talk about the animals

in their lives, and give them the opportunity to forget that they're

in a hospital, " says Dianne Bell, coordinator of the Delta Society Pet Partners

program, which

helps train and register animals and their owners for volunteer

positions in health-care settings.

 

Currently there

are more than 8,000 Delta Society Pet Partner teams in the United

States and a handful of other countries, says Bell. Each makes an

average of three visits per month and is likely to touch the lives of

more than 540 people per year. And these figures don't include the

hundreds of other volunteer teams registered through different

programs.

 

Exercise and

more

At the Alegent

Health Immanuel Medical Center in Omaha, Neb., Lucky Boy the miniature

horse regularly visits with patients and contributes to the

rehabilitation team's efforts. Originally started by Jena Munson, a

certified therapeutic recreation specialist at the hospital, the

animal-assisted therapy program also incorporates dogs and cats.

 

Many of the patients that meet with the animals have had spinal-cord

injuries, strokes or diseases of the central nervous system. By

petting and grooming the pets, they get exercise, improve their

fine-motor skills and are able to work on their balance, among other

things.

 

" I look at this type of therapy as one of my tools in my arsenal

to maximize a patient's recovery, " says Dr. Thomas Franco,

medical director at the hospital's Rehabilitation Center. " My

goal is to keep the patients interested and stimulated and extending

themselves. "

 

The work the animals and their handlers do offers patients much more

than an opportunity to move around and stretch their limbs. It can

serve as an icebreaker - a chance to draw out people who are

emotionally shut down or depressed - or a way to help improve their

memory by memorizing the names of different parts of the animal. One

patient, Munson recalls, refused to speak with any of the hospital

staff members but would happily talk to Lucky Boy.

 

'A change of pace'

Sometimes just having an animal around opens up an avenue for

communication and makes the often cold setting of a hospital seem more

normal. For the many farmers and ranchers at the hospital in Omaha, a

visiting horse like Lucky Boy - however small - offers an

opportunity to reminisce and trade stories about their

lives.

 

" Many people here in the Midwest have a true love for horses, and

animals in general, " says Munson. " It can do a lot for them

emotionally. "

 

Slide show

* Animal

Tracks

Images of creatures great and smallThe pets offer therapy not only for

patients, but for their families, too. Russ Cech of Howells, Neb.,

visited with Lucky Boy during the horse's trip to the hospital on June

29. His 13-year-old daughter Jackie Cech suffered a spinal-cord injury

in a car accident two months ago and is now undergoing rehabilitation

after being paralyzed from the waist down. The Cech family has been at

the hospital around the clock for weeks in the wake of the ordeal.

 

" (Seeing the horse) is a little something different, " says

Cech. " It's a surprise after sitting here for so long. A change

of pace. " And, he adds, it's good for his daughter, now confined

to a wheelchair, to be able to interact with something at her eye

level.

 

The right stuff

Not just any Fido

or Fluffy can join the elite ranks of registered animals. Pets and

their owners must go through a rigorous evaluation program. Julie

Wood, Lucky Boy's owner and founder of Sunrise Equitherapy in Lincoln,

Neb., spent weeks training her tiny horse before he could pass the

Delta Society evaluation test.

 

First, he needed

to learn to tolerate things like wheelchairs bumping into him, walkers

and crutches crashing to the ground behind him, yelling, simultaneous

petting by many people, and patients who try to cover his head with a

blanket. He also had to get used to regular baths and wearing booties

over his hooves, which help keep him from slipping on the hospital's

linoleum floors.

 

Even animals that do pass muster are only registered to work in

individualized situations and carefully assigned to locations where

they're best suited, says Bell. A more introverted parrot that does

better in one-on-one situations, would be placed differently than a

gregarious pygmy goat, for instance.

 

As for Lucky Boy, " he likes a mob scene, " says Wood. While

the former show horse does fine with individual patients, he clearly

prefers a crowd. " He gets into it - hook, line and sinker, "

she says.

 

And the crowds clearly love him. Already, patients visiting the

hospital have begun calling to schedule their appointments for times

when they'll be able to see him, says Munson.

 

Not for everyone

But, while there are many benefits, animal-assisted therapy is not for

everyone. Some people don't like animals; others have allergies or

other medical reasons why they can't be around them. In hospitals with

visiting pets, patients are carefully screened ahead of time and no

one is made to meet with an animal if they don't want to.

 

This kind of therapy can also be hard on the animals themselves. Just

like any worker, they get stressed out if forced to work long hours or

under difficult circumstances. According to Delta Society rules,

animals must have regular breaks and no visit can last longer than two

hours. Handlers are also required to be strong advocates for their

pets - to know when a situation is not going well and recognize when

an animal is not having a good day.

 

" Even though (Lucky Boy) loves it, it's stressful, " says

Wood. " He has a sense that he's doing something important. And he

knows it. "

© 2004 MSNBC Interactive

 

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