There was an article in today's Straits Times about building more studio flats for the elderly. It's good that more attention is being paid to our aging population. There is however one area where more could be done, with very little time/effort invested.
I went with the ex-adoption volunteer to visit this cat and the gentleman the cat lives with yesterday. The man is blind and has diabetes, and Chinky was kind enough to ask for some help to supply the man with some cat food and necessities.
The man lives alone in a small flat - his whole world is basically contained in one room. The cat is his only companion and he looks after it very well. Apparently, as was reported in the papers a while ago, the cat does the same - when the man fell, the cat ran to get help.
At a time when we our population is aging, doesn't it make sense to allow companions for our older citizens like this man and his cat?
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Cat
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I remember this article and the sweet cat that ran next door to get help from neighbours. I agree with you, a pet will make the best companion for people living alone. Keeps the loneliness away. Thanks Chinky for helping the old man out.
I suspect people are generally ignorant about the importance of a pet to an elderly person. Such people mistakenly think that a cat or dog is a burden - rather than a companion - to someone who's seen to be unable to care for himself or herself. One of my neighbours told me that when her elderly mother (who lives alone) fell ill, the children abandoned her cat. Of course, the old woman was so upset that she never recovered. But the children still think that they did the best for their mother.
I agree with yskat's comment. When my cat was sick, a kindly person said she would pray for me to be relieved of my 'burden'-exact word used. I don't think she was implying that the pet would get well; rather for me to be spared from stress of nursing. While I appreciate her concern for my well-being but i prefer for my cat to be with me.
Pet therapy and dementia:
Study reinforces the phrase “man’s best friend”
By Grant Milne
The following is an Interview with Ann-Marie Wordley, a PhD candidate at the University of Adelaide. Her research deals with the effects that animal assisted therapy have on dementia patients in a senior housing atmosphere.
SNAPforSeniors: Could you provide a bit of background on who you are and what you do?
Anne-Marie Wordley: I’m currently completing my PhD in the School of Psychology in the University of Adelaide, which is in South Australia. My thesis has investigated animal assisted therapy, or pet therapy, for people with dementia living in residential care facilities. I’m aiming to submit my thesis in February or March of next year, and I get my interest in the animals from my passion and love of animals, my cat’s actually sitting on my lap at the moment (laughs).
I’ve also worked with elderly people. After I finished my undergraduate studies in psychology, I went to London for a year and found myself working with elderly people in the community.
SFS: Sounds interesting. Can you please tell us a bit more about what animal assisted therapy entails?
AMW: Animal assisted therapy, or AAT, involves therapy with animals. In my study we had volunteer dog handlers with dogs who where suitable for the nursing home environment. They had been temperament tested to make sure they OK around wheelchairs and walkers and that sort of thing. I used two volunteers, along with a golden retriever and two border collies to administer therapy as part of my research program.
We ran one hour animal assisted therapy sessions twice a week for the six week intervention program, and the activity therapist at the nursing home was present at the time, plus the volunteer dog handlers and the dog or dogs. During the session, the residents were able to pet and interact with the dog as the handler walked them around the group, and we’d also do one-on-ones where the dogs would jump up on the couch or chair next to them, and sort of get to their level if they weren’t able to come to the dog.
SFS: Can you go a bit more in-depth into the research itself?
AMW: In just a snapshot of the research, it was essentially a 22 week trial of animal assisted therapy in a South Australian residential care facility. The trial consisted of a four-week baseline period to asses where the residents started before the therapy and a six-week intervention period which is where we administered the therapy. These were followed by a six-week follow-up period in which we monitored the resident’s without administering therapy, and a separate six-week control study. Prior to the trial, we did exploratory interviews with nursing home residents, and then follow up interviews after the studies with staff and resident families. No one who was previously determined to be afraid of dogs or allergic to dogs was included in the research.
SFS: How about a brief overview of the findings?
AMW: We used the revised memory and behavior problem checklist to measure the effects of the therapy. The checklist provides three subscales: memory problems, disruptive behavior and depression. I also added an additional subscale called pro-social behavior, which includes items like smiling, laughing and eye contact, these sorts of positive social behaviors and communications that often people with dementia don’t display. We wanted to see if AAT would have an effect, not only on what is looked at as negative, or problem behaviors, but also on positive behaviors.
What we found was that in the intervention, the pro-social behavior increased substantially and was maintained during follow-up. So it appears that when we stopped the AAT those effects seemed to stay on, at least for the six-week follow-up period.
When we looked at memory problems; in the baseline period they were quite high, and then went down substantially during intervention. They increased slightly from that point in the follow-up, but not to the level of baseline. We observed similar results with disruptive behavior.
We conducted a control in which the same volunteers came in without the dogs because we wanted to see if it was simply having, you know, an interesting person visit, or whether the dog was actually making a unique contribution to the effects we were seeing. When we took the dogs out of the equation, pro-social behavior was about half what it was with the dogs. Memory problems also decreased when we had the dogs. So we found that the dogs were adding something, it wasn’t just a nice person coming in and having a chat, which is something a lot of studies haven’t looked at.
SFS: So what do these results mean for families, caregivers and the individuals with dementia themselves?
AMW: I think that these sorts of findings seem to offer an alternative therapy for people with dementia, who perhaps haven’t responded to other types of therapies. I’ve worked a lot with families and small changes are huge for them. So anything that gets a response from a loved one with dementia, even if it’s a smile or eye contact, is really big.
For professionals, any reduction in challenging behavior problems is a plus, because it makes their lives so much easier. It’s good all around for all people involved.
SFS: And it’s not expensive or drug-intensive like most other options.
AMW: That’s right, because often the alternatives are drug therapies, so it’s good to see a non-drug intervention that can have such strong effects.
SFS: Are there any stories you can share about someone who benefited uniquely from the therapy?
AMW: There was one lady with very severe dementia, probably the worst in the nursing home. She was just in her own world, she didn’t communicate with anyone. She was often making almost barking type noises, but not in a way that was interactive. This particular lady took a liking to one of the volunteers and her two very striking black and white border collies. I hypothesized that her reaction had something to do with color, because she didn’t seem to react the same with the other dogs.
Her reaction was quite amazing. In interviews with the staff and family, we learned that they never got a response from this particular lady, but when we introduced her to the dogs she was actually petting them and making eye contact with the volunteer. If you know someone with that severe level of dementia, you know to see those sorts of reactions is quite amazing. When we told her daughter, she was very excited, saying “oh my God! Mom was actually doing that?” That was one of the highlights; it was almost miraculous I guess.
SFS: So where do you proceed from here with your research?
AMW: Well, I have to finish this PHD thesis (laughs), so that’s the first plan! I’m also presenting at another conference in Italy, which is an animal welfare conference, so I’ve done the [Alzheimer’s Association Dementia Care Conference], and now looking at the animal side of my research. What we’re looking at there is hopefully fusing an adoption organization with nursing homes, so if there are animals that need homes (so we don’t have to put them down) and we can place them with residents who can benefit so much from their company. So I don’t really know exactly where we’re going from here, but I think there’s a lot of interest in the research.
SFS: Well it certainly seems like you have some very promising results so far. Thank you very much for your time and good luck with your research in the future.
Looking for a senior housing community that allows pets?
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Out of curiosity, just wondering here, since the blind man stay alone, how does he change cat litter. Do his neighbour come his home daily to clean up the cat pee and pooh?
It is true there are research that shows owning cats help reduce loneliness, depression, hypertension, heart-related disease and cats (also dogs/any pets) are good companions for seniors living alone.
A Home Without A Cat Is Not A Home.
=^..^=
Aminah Bee.
Cat does poo on newspaper and pees in bathroom. Mr J wraps up poo and tosses in rubbish chute-i have seen that done. There's no cat poo/pee smell on any of our visits.
Mr J's flat is clean. Meals are delivered.
Mr J seems a little lonely & it wld be nice if someone who speaks the same language as Mr J comes along to visit him.
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