Hi readers, it’s Kerry, Emily and William here, following on from our last two columns about Susie the cat.
She got us thinking about other therapy animals. I, Emily, worked in a care home which sadly recently closed. (I am looking for new employment, in case anyone reading is hiring!). We had all kinds of animal to visit, including donkeys, ponies and dogs. The residents loved seeing the animals, as it made people happy to be near them.
We also had a care home cat. She’d sit on residents’ beds, and they could stroke her all day. She now has a good new home with one of the nurses.
My Mum has two lovely Maltese dogs, and am sure they can sense things. If we are having a bad day, they will get up close and soothe us. It made me also think about epilepsy or seizure dogs. These dogs are amazing, learning how to help if someone has a seizure. They might bark to alert attention, lie down next to the person to comfort and protect them, some can even activate a push button which sends a signal for help.
Some can be trained to detect when someone is about to have a seizure, but this can be more difficult.
There are also service dogs who help people with anxiety. They do things like bring medication during an anxiety attack, get help or put pressure on someone’s chest to help calm them down.
Of course, other animals can be very healing, like ponies and horses. Some of our members went to Equintevention last year and loved it.
We want to share which animals we’d choose as our ‘therapy’ animals but we have run out of room today so we will share this with you next week!
The writers of the Our View column are supported in their editing by People First Dorset - a charity led and run by people with learning disabilities with support from staff
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