Healing pets

L I F E S T Y L E Living
Tuesday July 17, 2007


Healing with pets

By ALLAN KOAY

Physicians find that pets have a positive effect on patients’ recovery and are including them as part of therapy.

WHEN the small, colourful little aquarium in her home is lit up, and the fish begin to swim excitedly, Wong Lee Foong, 22, becomes animated. She gestures and makes excited noises. She clearly enjoys seeing the fish of different hues darting about in the water.

Wong, a spastic quadraplegic, was adopted when she was five, by Klang resident Roxanna Lim.


Dr Vijayakumar, with one of his three dogs, says one is more relaxed around dogs.
Lim says the aquarium has done wonders for her daughter. Having an aquarium installed in her home was a move recommended in November last year by volunteers of the Malaysian Animal-assisted Therapy for the Disabled and Elderly Malaysia, or Petpositive.

Lim and volunteers from Petpositive, a non-profit organisation, took Lee Foong to a pet shop to choose the fish.

“She thought a lot about which fish to choose,” said Lim.

Everything was sponsored by Petpositive and Lim only had to pay a token fee of RM100. At first, they had two goldfish, which eventually died. But Lim has since learned to maintain the aquarium and they now have quite a few.

“Now Lee Foong seems a lot happier than before,” said Lim. “She’s also always smiling and can respond very well. You can see that there’s mental activity. Before this, she used to just lie on the bed and look at the ceiling fan. Usually in the mornings, when we feed the fish, she gets very excited.”

Animal-assisted therapy for the disabled and elderly is not something new, although it is hardly practised in Malaysia. Petpositive prides itself in being the first such initiative in the country. In the United States, there are programmes such as Pets Offer Ongoing Care and Healing (or POOCH), and groups such as the Delta Society and Therapy Dogs International Inc, that evaluate, train and register therapy dogs.

Animals have also long been known to have positive effects on people with illnesses and disabilities. Although scientific studies on the effect of animal-assisted therapy are rare, there have been many accounts of how interaction with animals helped to reduce heart rate and blood pressure. A study conducted in City Hospital, New York, showed that heart patients who owned pets tended to live longer than those who didn’t.

Animals are non-judgmental and are able to accept people just as they are. They are also loving, affectionate and forgiving, and are thus able to provide a joyful and positive environment for those who are suffering. For the disabled, having a pet to care for also helps them to develop a sense of confidence and purpose.

Dr C. Vijayakumar, a dental surgeon who is also treasurer of Petpositive, said animal-assisted therapy is not about performing miracles. Illnesses and problems are not going to disappear overnight.

“What we want to do is put a smile on someone’s face,” he explained. “I strongly believe that laughter is the best medicine.”


Spastic quadraplegic Wong Lee Foong (right) reacts animatedly when her aquarium is illuminated. With her is her mother, Roxanna Lim.
Dr Vijayakumar was one of the volunteers who helped to set up the aquarium in Lim’s home. He said the aquarium benefits both mother and child.

“For us, it might seem like a very normal thing, but for them, it is something out of the ordinary that helps them to break out of their routine and monotony,” he said.

He has a large aquarium in his home, which he said helps him to relieve stress after a hard day’s work. He also has three dogs.

“You tend to be more relaxed when you have your dogs around you,” said Dr Vijayakumar. “If you approach your dog when you are angry, he will understand that you’re not going to play with him. But when he jumps on you, you start to forget your problems. You can’t help but reciprocate and hug him. And you will become more relaxed and your blood pressure would definitely decrease.”

Dr Vijayakumar related how a patient of his, who is in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease, maintains a fish pond, which helps him take his mind off his illness.

“Once you’re diagnosed with Parkinson’s, you tend to fall into depression,” said Dr Vijayakumar. “Despite his limited movement, he cleans the pond himself. Although it takes a longer time for him to do it, he does it because it helps to prevent his body from becoming stiff. Also, he doesn’t sit around and get depressed thinking about his condition. That gets him out of his depression.”

Another Petpositive volunteer, rehabilitation physician Dr Nazirah Hasnan, deals with those with spinal-cord injuries and has often seen how patients slip into denial, anger, depression and disbelief. Because of one of her patients, she was prompted to find out more about animal-assisted therapy. She believes animal-assisted therapy has a place in rehabilitation and as part of the overall treatment of a patient, but cautions that it should not be the sole therapy for a patient.

“With animal-assisted therapy, you need to have goals, what you want to achieve with a certain patient,” said Dr Nazirah, who is also advisor to Petpositive. “When you know that, then you want to figure out which animal is best. You must also have some kind of assessment to see how effective it is.”

Although dogs are the most useful, all kinds of animals are used in animal-assisted therapy, from birds to fish to rabbits.

She said animal-assisted therapy first started in the 1700s in a mental asylum where barnyard animals were used to help patients gain control over themselves. Later, the Germans used animals to help epileptic patients. During World War II, the Americans used dogs to comfort wounded soldiers and provide emotional and psychological support.

“So, initially, it was about trying to get people to move again,” explained Dr Nazirah. “Horses were also used, in what is called hippotherapy, which helps people with their balance and posture. Later, it was discovered that it also helps to build self-confidence and improve the sensory aspects, through the stroking of the horse. Dogs were also used to help in speech and voice training, by having patients verbally give instructions to the dogs.”

Dr Nazirah has seen, first-hand, how dogs were used in therapy while working in a hospital in Australia.

At a German rehabilitation centre that she visited, there were two resident dog therapists. Apart from the social and psychological aspects of therapy, the dogs were also trained to walk with the patients and to pace themselves according to the patients’ movements.

“I believe animal-assisted therapy is the way forward at the moment,” said Dr Vijayakumar. “It cannot replace modern medicine but it is an added therapy.”

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