Pet Therapy By: Rebecca Singleterry To people who do not own pets the idea of them being part of your family is sometimes laughed at. The fact is once you become a pet owner you become a parent again. A pet gives you someone to take care of, love, and are great company. Most people take their pets with them when they go on trips or find a friend to pet sit just like you would do for your child. So the idea of bringing your pet to come visit you in the hospital is not that far fetched. The idea comes from a man named Ernest London, his wife was in the hospital with severe pneumonia, delirious, and hallucinating that she was in jail. He asked the doctor if he could bring the family dog, Delilah, a fluffy white Maltese, to see if the pet could calm his wife down. It took a while for the hospital to allow the dog to go upstairs. In the hospital room, the dog ran to Mrs. London’s side and nuzzled her hand. She stirred from her delirium “just a little bit,” Mr. London recalled, and began to remember where she was. “It was a turning point,” he said. “From that point on, she seemed to take a turn for the better.” Research on the value of personal pets visiting patients in the hospital hasn’t been done, until one small 2010 study, of 10 healthy dog owners by researchers at Virginia Commonwealth’s Center. According to Dr. Sandra Barker, director of the center and a professor of psychiatry. “Human-Animal Interaction found that both unfamiliar and familiar dogs provoked similar reactions: a relaxation response and reduction in blood pressure and levels of cortisol, a stress-related hormone.” There are only about a dozen hospitals nationwide that have the “Pet Policy” in play. This is where a family member may bring in your furry friend to come see you in the hospital. Some hospitals allow the pet to stay during normal human visiting hours and some may stay all day and night. There are very strict rules to having your pet come and visit you. A person must have orders from their doctor to have their pets visit. The animals must be groomed within days of visiting and all shots must be up to date. Dog must be on a leash when they walk through the hospital and cats must come in and out in a carrier. The animals can get up in the beds with the patients, but they have a covering laid down first. Even though this is helpful to the patient’s people also need to remember that this is also hard on the family pet. The visits can be hard on dogs, which often respond viscerally to an owner’s illness and may take a day or two to recover from a visit. GRAHAM, J. (2013). When Best Friends Can Visit. Retrieved from newoldage.blogs.nytimes/2013/04/10/when-best-friends-can-visit/
Posted on: Mon, 12 Aug 2013 03:11:25 +0000
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