Warm fuzzies all round

Meet John and Jock, two popular visitors to Peacehaven’s Iona dementia unit.

The pair have been visiting Iona every Tuesday morning for the better part of a year, much to the residents’ delight.

“They may not remember Jock had visited them the week before, but when they see him, they remember how he made them feel,” Enliven dementia care manager Julie Worner said.

John said Jock also enjoyed the visits.

“It is his favourite day of the week because it is his patting day.”

John Ingram and his Belgian Shepherd Jock volunteer with Hato Hone St John’s Therapy Pets programme in Invercargill, where volunteers and their pets visit rest homes, hospitals, rehabilitation units, assisted living homes, and other community locations to give residents and patients comfort, joy and invaluable social interaction.

John and his wife Jo breed Belgian Shepherds. At 12 years of age, Jock is the oldest of nine dogs they currently own.

It was John’s experience with his father in care that inspired him to volunteer for the programme.

John said when his father developed dementia, he used to take his dog Wolf to visit him in a dementia unit in Dunedin.  When he saw the St John advertisement for Therapy Pet volunteers in Invercargill, he decided to sign up, knowing how much pleasure Wolf’s visits had given his father.

He wanted to visit a dementia unit as opposed to other types of facilities because he was aware there was a fear in the community about dementia and as a result sometimes staff and residents in those units missed out on community visits, he said.

There had been times when staff had told him that Jock’s visit had been the first time a resident had smiled in days.

“It is nice to bring pleasure to people through an animal.”

Iona resident Jennifer Thomson said Jock’s visits brought her joy.

“It is just nice. I like having a live animal coming to see us. I look forward to his visits.”

The Therapy Pets programme was first introduced by the SPCA in 1988 but is now fully owned and operated by Hato Hone St John in locations throughout New Zealand.

At present, there are 31 Therapy Pets human volunteers and 35 canine volunteers in Southland.

Hato Hone St John Community Care manager Pam Hall said the visits generated a range of social benefits which contributed to the health, wellbeing and quality of life for people who received the service.

“Residents “light-up” when they met our Therapy Pet team which creates an immediate lift in their mood.”

Ms Hall said volunteers go through a recruitment process which includes an interview and a police check. The dogs are assessed by a local dog trainer and applicants are required to show their dog is obedient, under control and they work well together.

More than 300 residents in all four of Enliven Southland’s care homes benefit from regular visits from Therapy Pets volunteers.