Pet power
WHEEL POWER with ANTHONY THANASAYAN
The more you think about it, the more you can't help
but arrive at the
conclusion that our four footed furry friends have been more successful at
bonding with persons with disabilities than most of our human caregivers.
I came across a most compelling story a fortnight ago about how pet therapy
has been able to help the latest group of disabled persons: people with
schizophrenia.
A patient at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles getting a kiss from a
golden retriever, during a pet therapy visit from the dog. New research
shows that pet therapy can contribute to the psychosocial rehabilitation of
schizophrenia patients.
The report broadcast by BBC World Service (WS) radio from London gave an
account of how specially trained dogs were taken into therapy sessions and
were helping people with schizophrenia feel more motivated and generally
improving their quality of life.
The new research, conducted by a team from the Technion
Institute of
Technology in Israel looked at the effect of bringing dogs into therapy
sessions. Patients in these sessions were found to be much less apathetic
compared to those who underwent conventional therapy.
The study, the WS says, is published in the recent Switzerland-based medical
journal Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics.
The research team, the broadcast explains, looked at anhedonia,
the
inability to gain pleasure from normally pleasurable experiences, which is a
major factor in schizophrenia.
For example, an anhedonic mother gains no joy from
playing with her baby, a
footballer is no longer excited when his team wins and a teenager is left
unmoved by passing their driving test. The condition is linked to poor
social functioning and has proved resistant to treatment.
The researchers compared 10 schizophrenia patients who underwent
animal-assisted therapy and 10 who were given non-animal therapy over a
10-week period. In each case, they assessed patients' clinical symptoms,
their subjective views of their quality of life and their hedonic tone - a
psychological term relating to whether someone views experiences as
pleasurable.
The group who were given pet therapy showed a significant improvement in the
hedonic tone compared to the other group. They were also seen to show an
improvement in the use of leisure time and a trend towards improvement in
motivation.
The researchers, led by Dr Inbar Nathans-Barel,
concluded animal-assisted
therapy "may contribute to the psychosocial rehabilitation and quality of
life of chronic schizophrenia patients," the WS report concluded.
Bob & Harley
On a sad note, my blind chum and Wheel Power reader Robert Feinstein (Bob)
from Brooklyn, New York, e-mailed me last week and related how still
excruciatingly painful and difficult it is for him to adjust to life now
without having his beloved best friend Harley by his side.
Good ol' Harley had served Bob since August of 1994
as his faithful yellow
Labrador guide dog. Harley died of bone cancer two years ago.
Bob told me that a part of him died with Harley when he had no choice but to
have his dog humanely put down. Bob was also upset that "some of the vets,
like most doctors did not fully understand the ramifications of what being
totally blind and having to live alone was like."
One vet, for example, spoke to him as if he was a sighted person and
suggested home care for Harley with the aid of a sling to help him walk.
(This was before Harley's condition turned for the worse despite having
chemotherapy and being put on steroids.)
Without Harley to make on-the-spot decisions as a seeing eye dog for Bob, he
has now to rely on a white cane as a result of which, Bob says, has greatly
diminished his mobility.
"I am now compelled to rely on sighted strangers for help when crossing
the
streets (where in New York, people frequently pass by without noticing
you)," he says.
"I have to depend on cabs which drain me financially. Errands that once
were
a pleasurable exercise to look forward to with Harley (and a great excuse
for me to get out of my home) - have now become so onerous that I look for
ways to avoid them."
With Harley gone, Bob laments that he has become more dependent on other
people.
"Sometimes, I find myself talking to my cane, or reaching down every now
and
then to give my once faithful friend a hug - only to realise
that Harley is
absent. God took away the only thing that I cared for above everything else!
Although I don't know if I will be prepared to get a replacement for Harley
one day and perhaps to have to go through the heart-wrecking experience of
having to lose a guide dog all over again.
"But I am convinced that no blind person left with only a white cane can
enjoy the fluidity of movement and the ease of travel that someone using a
properly matched guide dog can feel.
"I dearly miss the freedom Harley gave me. I miss walking almost like a
sighted person, with just enough pull on the harness for me to follow. I
miss all the visual decisions that Harley made for me; now I bang into
obstacles constantly with my cane.
"Sighted people also tend to approach you more easily when you have a dog
-
no one wants to talk to a cane, and people are shy about interacting with a
blind person who is tapping his cane and having a hard time at it.
"I miss my dear friend Harley, a dog that never failed to wake me up with
his licking in the mornings and whose antics made me laugh during the times
that I needed cheering up most," concludes Bob.