Whether you had a good or bad day, you can always count your dog or your
cat to greet you with unconditional love that will lift your spirits.
For a long time, blind and disabled individuals have been using therapy
animals for assistance. Now, they have become more common in treatment for
Alzheimer’s and
dementia patients.
At
Mount Carmel Assisted Living, our Hampton memory care facility offers pet therapy to our patients.
The kind of obstacles our Alzheimer’s and dementia patients face
on a daily basis include depression, restlessness, irritability, having
difficulty participating in social activities, and feeling lonely and
isolated. They can lose the motivation to engage in physical activity
and often neglect required daily activities, such as eating or taking
care of their hygiene.
However, when a therapy-trained pet is with them, they are able to experience
more interactive behaviors. They can interact with a pet without having
any worries or concerns. For example, dogs have been proven to decrease
agitation and increase pleasure, just by their presence alone.
The benefits of pet therapy include the following:
- Pets improve a patient’s mood
- Pets significantly lower a patient’s blood pressure
- Pets improve a patient’s nutrition
- Pets help decrease a patient’s behavioral problems
- Pets improve a patient’s physical activity and mobility
Some may be wondering if the animals can be unpredictable at times, perhaps
causing a disruption in the therapy process. Therapy animals are a huge
commitment since they require an extensive training process. They must
be able to sit, stay, resist any sort of distractions and perform tricks
on command. Even though research is ongoing on therapy pets, there is
evidence that they have done a great deal of good to many of our patients already.
For more information about our pet therapy,
contact our Hampton assisted living center and schedule a tour with us today!