Pet symmetry

[Guest guest]

South China Morning Post

Saturday, January 15, 2005

by ELLA LEE and KRISTINE KWOK

 

Anna often feels lonely and depressed, and rarely trusts people. Only

when she is with her two best friends - Little Tiger and Bobo - does the

61-year-old cheer up, chattering eagerly.

 

Anna (not her real name) was diagnosed with anxiety and depression six

years ago and has since been prescribed psychiatric treatment.

 

But it's the magic of animals that has helped relieve her pain, and

makes medical experts believe that pets can offer a viable means to treat

patients such as Anna, and others with mental illnesses or disabilities.

 

Born into a large family in Beijing, Anna's " bitter childhood " and the

painful experience of the Cultural Revolution made her distrustful of people

around her.

 

After moving to Hong Kong in 1978, she says she didn't make any real

friends, except her boyfriend, who died in 1992. She adopted Little Tiger in

2000, and Bobo in 2002. Since then, the two cats, or " my dear sons " as she

calls them, have been her loyal companions.

 

" I was devastated when my boyfriend passed away. There were times I

wanted to commit suicide. But after Little Tiger and Bobo came into my life,

I knew I had the responsibility to take care of them. I couldn't just leave

them alone - what would become of them if I died?, " she said.

 

" Now, I go to see the doctor regularly and take my drugs on time - I

just want to take good care of myself and them. I don't trust people easily,

but I do trust them [the cats]. They won't tell my secrets to other people.

So, I tell them everything, be it trivial or important. "

 

Anna's love of cats started with a childhood pet called Tiger, who

helped her deal with a lack of closeness within her family. " I don't know my

mother. She died when I was a baby. My father was in his 70s when I was

born, and my sister was 50 years older than me. Nobody except Tiger played

with me, " she said.

 

She said she had become more caring and emotionally stable since

Little Tiger and Bobo entered her life. And the pair's companionship has

also helped boost her self-esteem. " They make me feel that I am still of

some use, because I can take care of them. I am more confident now. "

 

Kowloon Hospital medical social worker Ip Tsui-wan says keeping

animals may not be the golden rule for mental patients' recovery, but they

have helped in Anna's case.

 

" Anna used to be very irritable and had a limited social circle. But I

have witnessed her transformation since she's kept the cats. The animals

make her feel loved. She is more expressive now, and she takes part in more

social activities, " said Ms Ip.

 

Dr Fan Tak-wing, a psychiatrist at the Castle Peak Hospital, said a

number of groups helping people with disabilities were actively looking into

ways to promote pet therapy in Hong Kong. Dr Fan himself has been

researching and applying pet therapy to some of his mentally handicapped

patients.

 

He is also a cat lover. In December 1997, he established the Cats

Salvation Army, a group that promotes the welfare of stray, abandoned and

abused cats.

 

He said sometimes doctors did not apply traditional medical models

because some conditions were not defined as an illness. " For example, a

mentally handicapped person is very shy and unconfident while socialising,

but we do not label this as an illness. So, we have to think of a way to

help them, " he said.

 

Dr Fan is organising regular animal visits to Lok Yan school, a

special school at the Caritas Hospital in Lai Chi Kok, which teaches

resident patients suffering from profound grades of mental retardation.

 

Many of these patients - whose intelligence quotients often drop below

20 - also suffer from severe physical disabilities. Some are bedridden and

paralysed. A total of 176 children attend the school. Of these, 38 are below

the age of six.

 

" What we are planning is not just one-off animal visits, but

research-based and regular visits so we have time to observe the impact of

the therapy on them. " He said he hoped to have the programme up and running

in March.

 

Dr Fan said the choice of animals varied according to the client group

being visited. " We will bring along dogs and cats for most patients. But for

those who are bedridden, we may bring tanks of fish. Some patients cannot

move and can only stare at the ceiling, so we hope that the fish might at

least give them some stimulation. "

 

Recently, Dr Fan helped set up a new research facility, the Companion

Animal Research and Information Centre, in Hong Kong. Spokesman Bella Lo

said the centre would conduct research on human-animal interaction and

responsible pet ownership.

 

" We believe in the mutuality of love, respect and care between humans

and animals, and trust that if they are treated well by responsible pet

owners, companion animals are more than capable of bringing joy and harmony,

as well as psychological benefits, to humans. "

 

Dr Fan said the Cats Salvation Army was also launching a programme to

help single elderly people keep pet cats. " We aim to provide a support

network. We will choose some cats suitable for adoption and give them to

single elderly people.

 

" If the elderly are sick or have to move to an institution, we will go

and pick up the cats, " he said.

 

" We will also ask some home helpers to take care of the cats - buying

food or taking them to vets. We want to make sure that pet-keeping will not

be a burden to the elderly. "

 

Dr Fan said the merit of pet therapy was that animals always treated

humans equally. " They do not care about someone's appearance or social

status, or if the person has a disability. "

 

He said companion animals helped the disabled change the way they saw

themselves - from people who needed to be cared for to assuming the role of

carer. This helped to build self-image, an effect difficult to achieve using

other therapies.

 

Pets can also mend broken relationships. Dr Fan cited one case in

which he counselled a family at the Castle Peak Hospital outpatient clinic.

The father suffered chronic back pain after an industrial accident. He was

unemployed and rarely left home. As he was in constant pain, he became

irritable and difficult to live with and his relationship with his son

deteriorated as a result.

 

Struggling to deal with the situation, his wife tried to keep the boy

away from him for several years to avoid further confrontation.

 

Dr Fan advised the man and his son to keep a hamster together. " Their

relation improved and the mother regained her confidence. The whole family

is now happier, " Dr Fan said.

 

Pet therapy can also be useful on patients with personality disorders.

" At the moment, personality disorders cannot effectively be cured by

medicine. In such a case, we can apply pet therapy. We let patients take

care of an animal and through the process, they will understand what kind of

behaviour is disliked by the animal, and so realise how their own behaviour

affects others. Gradually, the patients will learn how to feel what others

feel. "

 

He said there was no particular species that was best suited to pet

therapy, as it was a matter of the patients' personal preferences and the

individual situations they faced.

 

" Pets can be anything. We are not talking just about dogs and cats -

some people say they can talk to their fish, and they feel better after

chatting with their fish. Some say that they can understand what a dog wants

to say just through eye contact. "