In a piece printed here a couple of weeks ago I wrote about the health benefits of interacting with pets. I mentioned reading about a nursing home in another state that utilized “pet therapy” with its residents there and how pleasing the outcome has been.
Since then, a recent article in the Benton County Daily Record told of two medical facilities here in Arkansas where pet programs are being used to help patients recover. I was interested to learn that these kinds of programs are gaining ground in our area.
The article stated that since June 2nd of this year, Washington Regional Medical Center’s Senior Specialty Unit in Fayetteville has been participating in a program called Pet Assisted Wellness for Seniors (PAWS). After completing more than a year of training, including exposure “to the distinct sights and sounds of the hospital setting like beeping monitors, buzzing intercoms and rattling carts, “two dogs are now included in the PAWS program at WRMC. The dogs are brought into the hospital by their trainers to visit patients, in an effort to speed up the patients’ recoveries.
From the article, itsounds as though the dogs’ jobs are to sit quietly and allow patients to pet them. Staff reports that the dogs put patients in better moods and help them focus on something other than their own discomfort. In addition, patients tend to move around more when the dogs come to visit, which also proves beneficial.
A similar program called Therapeutic Animal Intervention Lifts Spirits, or TAILS, has been in place for several years with much younger patients at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. Since beginning in 2001, the program has grown to include 16 dogs and their handlers. In addition to the physical and emotional benefits to the children, the article makes the point that most patients come from homes with pets, so bringing the therapy animals to the hospital is another way to restore some “normalcy” to their lives while they are hospitalized.
I am glad to see that “pet therapy” is being utilized successfully and proving beneficial here in Arkansas. I am thinking now that being a therapy dog might be a new career for my dog Bo when he retires from his full-time positionof eating, sleeping, following me from room to room and chasing a tennis ball.
And while I am in the mode of revisiting previous columns, I would like to say something else about the school reunion I wrote about attending recently.
One of the highlights of that evening was visiting with Charlene, a woman who was a grade or two ahead of me at the Kingston school. She left sometime around my ninthgrade year. Although we had not seen each other since that time (until the alumni reunion) we enjoyed talking about what has happened in each others’ lives in the last 30-plus years.
I was surprised to learn that she currently resides in the Decatur area, making us practically neighbors. Then later in the evening when she learned that I write “A Walk in the Park,” she told me she has read my weekly column but did not realize it was written by someone from back in her old school days.
So, Charlene, if you are reading my column this week, I have a special message for you. I want to say how nice it was to see you again. Send me an e-mail and we’ll get together for lunch and catch up some more!
Annette Rowe is a freelance writer and a speech-language pathologist at Siloam Springs High School. She may be reached by e-mail at awalkinthepark50 @ yahoo.com.
Opinion, Pages 5 on 07/14/2010