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Featured Stories
Dog therapy for seniors lifts spirits
Kelly Nix - The Carmel Pine Cone |
When Monterey Pines resident Dorothy Nye petted Tara, a black cocker spaniel who visits the skilled nursing facility every week, her face lit up.
Nye is one of dozens of residents at Monterey Pines who benefit from visits by Tara and other small dogs as part of Pet Partners, a pet therapy program to lift the spirits of its residents, many of whom are wheelchair-bound or bedridden.
“This program is something very dear to me,” said Roni Rubinstein, who started Pet Partners and brought her dog, Tara, to Monterey Pines Tuesday. “I have seen what can happen as as result of it.”
A chance to pet a spaniel, scratch a Yorkie or get a lick from a beagle offers unparalleled joy to the elderly residents, many of whom who haven’t had contact with animals for years.
“The reactions are phenomenal,” said Monterey Pines activities director Maria Seamone. “People who were shy and quiet or very depressed have opened up.”
Two people, who before the dog visits would only lie in bed, now sit up and talk to the dogs when they come into their rooms, she said.
“It has opened my eyes to how important the dogs can be,” Seamone added.
Volunteers needed
The pet partners and their owners visit Monterey Pines several times a week, spending an average of 10 to 15 minutes with each resident.
This week, as she caressed Tara, Nye, who is wheelchair bound, told The Pine Cone she looks forward to visits from Tara and other dogs.
“She’s a fine dog,” Nye said.
Tara was adopted by Rubinstein from the Pacific Grove-based Animal Friends Rescue Project three years ago. The dog had been abandoned in Toro Park.
Although Rubinstein has volunteers lined up for the program, she is seeking more so there are dogs at the facility at least two times a day, seven days a week.
“We particularly like small dogs that can get on a bed and cuddle up to the residents, so they have immediate physical contact with them,” she said.
Rubinstein screens the dogs and their owners with a brief interview to determine if they are suitable for volunteering. She said older dogs are usually better than younger ones.
More like home
David A. Van Reusen, executive director of Monterey Pines, said having dogs visit the facility makes the nursing home feel more like a home and less like an institution.
And they bring back happy memories for residents who used to own animals, Rubinstein said.
“There was a woman last week who hadn’t smiled in weeks and weeks,” Rubinstein said. “We brought in this little Yorkie, and she began to smile.”
Rubinstein was director of a similar program at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital about 15 years ago. The successful program ran for three years.
She recounted the extraordinary turnaround of a teenager in a coma at the Santa Barbara hospital.
“I brought by my cocker spaniel, Cappuccino, to see him in ICU,” Rubinstein said. “I put him on the bed and I put his hand on Cappuccino’s paw and very slowly his fingers started to move. This was the first movement anybody had seen.” The boy eventually came out of the coma, she said.
Rubinstein’s program offers the chance for dogs to sit on patients’ beds and laps, unlike most pet therapy programs, which forbid that. The close interaction, she said, makes the experience even more meaningful to residents.
Community Hospital of Monterey Peninsula has its own therapy dog program, staffed with about 30 volunteers, which lessens the stress of lengthy hospital stays for some patients, said Jill Livingstone, the program’s co-coordinator.
“It’s a stress reliever for them, for staff and for visitors,” Livingstone said.
Rubinstein said her long-term goal is to have enough volunteers so she can expand the program to other elder care facilities on the Peninsula.
For information about volunteering for Pet Partners, contact Roni Rubinstein at (831) 626-6281.
Article By: Kelly Nix - The Carmel Pine Cone
Published: June 6, 2008
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