Art, music and pet therapy - Today's Ancillaries, part 2

Nursing Homes, July-August, 1996 by Laura Bruck

To get the message out, tell the public about your pet in your brochures and newsletters and call your local newspaper and suggest a human interest story about your residents and their pet. For every one potential resident who might be "turned off," there are ten more who will count the pet among the reasons to choose your facility over another.

Your occupational or physical therapist may enlist the aid of your resident dog in encouraging ambulation, increasing range of motion or providing relief to arthritic hands (by reaching for and stroking the dog). Or, your dog might end up assisting in activities, like Dexter. But your resident pet doesn't have to be part of structured program in order to be "therapeutic." Your residents will benefit simply by virtue of having a pet in the facility.

The bottom line is this: pets don't care what your residents look like, or if they're confused, incontinent, in wheelchairs, or bedbound. They simply want to love and be loved. And what could be more therapeutic than that?

For more information about pet therapy, contact Animal Therapeutics Unlimited. 859 North 300 East, Spanish Fork, UT 84660: 801-379-2758, or call Therapy Dogs, Inc. at 307-638-3223.