Many people love interacting with animals. Petting a cat or cuddling with a dog not only can make you feel happier, but it also turns out spending time with animals can also make you healthier. For both of these reasons, many assisted living facilities, including New Franklin, provide animal therapy for residents. Pet therapy, defined as a guided interaction between a person and a trained animal, has been shown to provide a number of benefits for physical and mental health.

Good for the heart

Pets can be good for cardiovascular health. Interacting with pets can lower blood pressure and can also normalize the heart rate. What’s more, it’s been shown that seniors with heart conditions who also own pets tend to have longer lives overall.

The presence of pets in assisted living facilities has also been associated with a decreased need for medication and improved vital signs among residents.

They get you moving

For some seniors, feeding or grooming a pet can help them improve or maintain physical abilities, such as hand dexterity. Taking a pet for a walk also encourages them to be more physically active, and promotes a healthier lifestyle.

For patients who need to do rehabilitative exercises, pet therapy can prove to be an incentive to execute them. Animals can be taught to promote rehabilitative exercises, such as catching balls thrown by patients.

Mental benefits

It’s been shown that pets give emotional stability in stressful periods, which helps to reduce negative feelings and negative thinking patterns. Research from the University of Missouri-Columbia has shown that petting a dog encourages the release of what researchers call “feel good hormones” in humans, which include serotonin, prolactin and oxytocin. These hormones, which increase your mood, can help people manage negative feelings of depression and anxiety.

Nutritional benefits

Research has also concluded that pet therapy can decrease the stress hormone “cortisol” in humans, which not only decreases stress but also helps to regulate appetite and stop unnecessary cravings for sugar and carbohydrates.

A self image boost

For seniors, caring for an animal can make them feel more responsible and useful, which can increase their self-esteem and self-confidence.

Socialization

Animals can also help seniors with social skills, as pets can listen without judgement and provide affection without bias. Pet therapy also increases social engagement among residents.

No communication needed

For some dementia patients, communicating with family, residents and caregivers can be difficult. For those who have lost their ability to speak, interacting with an animal can be a calming and soothing experience.

Here at New Franklin our residents enjoy pet therapy sessions bi-weekly, that assists our residents their physical, emotional and psychological needs. They all eagerly look forward to the calming session.