 |
|
|
|
|
 |
Abigail - Gooood Dog! |
|
|
|
"...As Abigail received her last round of hugs for the evening, a sense of excitement lingered in the hospital halls. "I've seen kids smile tonight, that I haven't seen smile before," says Kim Kuehnert, a child life intern." |
|
|
|
|
News for the UCSF Campus Community |
|
|
|
|
|
Patients respond well to pet therapy
By: Brad Foss
UCSF Medsounds Vol.11, NO.19
Medical Center News for the UCSF Campus Community
As Abigail stepped onto the sixth floor of Moffitt Hospital, her curly hair stylishly draped over her long torso, doctors and nurses paused to catch a glimpse. Some even approached Abigail to say hello as she bathed in the attention. She is calm and unassuming, and exactly the reason hospitalized children and their parents could do little but smile in awe of her warmth.
Abigail, a three-year-old Springer spaniel, represents the raison d'etre of a popular program at the UCSF Medical Center that uses animals to ease the minds and souls of young and old patients courtesy of the San Francisco Society for the Protection and Care of Animals (SPCA).
It was Justin Scott's 20th evening at Moffitt when Abigail, and her owner, Stephen Berg, rambled into his room. A wide grin came over the 13-year-old boy like a wave, and as his father, Zach, flopped the dog's ears onto Justin's toes, his sullenness washed away with laughter.
"It's been tough for us," Zach said of his son's rheumatic disorder. Unable to go in-line skating or see his pet parakeet, Justin said he appreciates the SPCA volunteers who share their pets with him. Justin has been visited by two other dogs and a guinea pig since arriving at UCSF.
"I've always wanted a dog," he said. They're really playful."
His father added, "We really look forward to the dogs. It warms his (Justin) heart to see the animals."
Though there is evidence that blood pressure, pulse and stress levels can be improved in the presence of animals, health care workers for the most part laud the emotional efficacy of these visits, which uplift the mood of patients, their families and the hospital staff.
"When we're taking the animals around, the nurses really love it. They'll say, `This really brightened up my day.' If the nurses are feeling better, they're going to be brighter an cheerier for the kids," says Joan Kazerounian, child life specialist at UCSF.
Creating a home environment for patients, Kazerounian says, is important to making them feel safe around each other as well as with hospital staff. "For kids who are immobile, it's very much a nurturing thing when they're talking with and touching the animals," she says. "Sometimes it allows conversation between us and the kids for them to gain an understanding of why they're here."
Perhaps the most ardent advocate of animal visitation is Frank Burtnett, the SPCA's animal therapy specialist. The "tactile" and "non-judgmental" interaction between humans and animals is "a model for trust and affection," Burtnett says. He recounted an array of noteworthy animal visits including the story of an 18-year-old boy who was very confident and a star athlete, before an accident left him paralyzed from the neck down. Totally despondent among the people around him, it was only after he made contact with reptiles that he opened up to the world again.
Most of the animals - dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs, snakes and turtles alike - belong to SPCA volunteers, who visit hospitals and make house calls to AIDS and cancer patients. The SPCA conducts health and behavior screenings on all the animals, and trains the volunteers.
"The animal reacts to the person's essence" and not to any physical ailments they may have, Burtnett says.
"That's a wonderful lesson we could learn from this," says Betty Cormack, a nurse at Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute, who incorporates discussion of animal-assisted therapy in a nursing course she teaches at the University of San Francisco. "The confidence in it as an intervention technique is really growing,. We've seen the benefits psychologically and physiologically. It's a great way to reach out to people who are fearful and withdrawn."
As Abigail received her last round of hugs for the evening, a sense of excitement lingered in the hospital halls. "I've seen kids smile tonight, that I haven't seen smile before," says Kim Kuehnert, a child life intern.
Story by: Brad Foss
Photo by: Chris T. Anderson
Posted on the Internet by: H3R, Inc.
|
|
|
Aviation Fire Protection