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Paws for a Cause: Pet Therapy for Alzheimer’s Patients

© Brenda S. Parris

Those of us who have pets know how much comfort "our babies" are to us. Is it possible that they might also be a comforting, calming influence on Alzheimer's patients, helping to make their days more peaceful and joyful?

In the May 1993 issue of Lancet, it was reported that French gerontologist Dr Elisabeth Kruczek, had done a survey about the effects of pets on Alzheimer's patients. That study suggested that "contact with pets can spontaneously induce extended periods of calm, on occasions even permitting a reduction in amount of sedative therapy required ... a particularly agitated patient, who would spend the whole day pacing to and fro, would stop to caress a cat for a whole hour."

A program at Elmhurst Extended Care Facility in Providence, R.I. has a pet visitation program in which dog visits all of the residents, room by room. "This golden retriever was just born for this ... He is extremely smart and senses when residents want him to visit or when they want to be left alone. A resident who has no one outside the home to visit her has hit it off with her visiting collie." Another resident was positively affected: "This lady is hard of hearing, and we could never get her to submit to a heating consult or get a hearing aid ... Now she has gone and gotten a hearing aid, and she just loves to show off 'her' dog to the other residents."

In 1996, Kathy Alexander started taking her little dog to visit her father-in-law at his nursing home. The visits drew crowds of adoring residents. Kathy was so impressed by this that she left her real estate business to found the Sarasota Florida organization, Pet Therapy, Inc. Her goal was "to take her cuddly dogs to nursing homes all over the county to 'honor our elders through consistent, unconditional love.'" She says that the ability animals have to bring joy into the lonely nursing home residents keeps Pet Therapy going. "Once you see the effects of this, you can't give it up," she says. "I had one woman tell me, 'Don't ever come and not wake me up. I live for these visits.' What greater gift can you give?"

The Pet Therapy Web site at http://www.pet-therapy.org shows that the mission continues, using both children and adult volunteers to provide pet visits in nursing homes.

My mother had never allowed pets in the house, but we had them outside. When I was her caregiver, she and I walked every day with the cat I'd tamed, "Pansy". And one Fourth of July, a puppy worked wonders in calming her when she didn't really want to be at our cookout. After being agitated during the meal, she quickly became calm and held the puppy all afternoon.

The copyright of the article Paws for a Cause: Pet Therapy for Alzheimer’s Patients in Alzheimer's Disease is owned by Brenda S. Parris. Permission to republish Paws for a Cause: Pet Therapy for Alzheimer’s Patients in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.