August 2008 Visits

Visit on 30 August 2008 - Bishan Home for the Intellectually Disabled (BHID)

Hi Fellow PAT Volunteers,

We have a great turn out of 22 helping hands and 17 healing paws.

1. Ann Wee with Vickie / Maltese
2. Amanda Richardson with Tixi / GSD
3. Evangeline Koh and nephews Sebastian & Harrison with Pepper & Perdi / Shetland Sheepdog
4. Joshua Koh with Samuel and Caled / Bernese Mouintain Dog
5. Pearly Cheong with Gabriel / Rough Collie
6. Geraldine & Deborah Yip with Cash / Corgi
7. Louiza Chan with Grace and Beatrice / Spoodle
8. Lok Tin Chan & Hubby & Daughter with Bobby / Shih Tzu
9. Elaine Lui, mum Soo Fen, dad Tuck Yew with Polar / Samoyed
10. Rebecca Kwan with Cocoa / Maltese
11. Patricia Koh with Brutus / English Bulldog
12. Melinda Ann Michael & sonShane with Chewy / Catalan Sheepdog and Cleo / Daschund
13. Mabel Ho with Silky / Golden Retriever
14. Charlie Ho with Stallion / GDS

A very warm welcome to Sheryl Ann Lee and her hubby who came to observe our activities. She will bring her Pekigese, Kenzo, to Owen Sim for the temperament assessment soon. We shall look forward to seeing Sheryl and Kenzo in action.

A big Thank You to all of you for the great response and for giving up your Saturday afternoon to share your dogs with the residents. The big smiles on their faces tell how much this is appreciated. Please accept my apologies to those I have missed on the list as I was so tight up with so many things and my memory needs fine tuning!

I would like to thank Ms Jess Lee, matron of BHID, and her staff for the excellent arrangement for this special PAT visit.

The filming at BHID was a continuation filming of our volunteers in action at IMH on 17 August for an episode of "ordinary people with extraordinary passion". The producer and his crew are fron 360threesixzero productions, a local TV production company. They are commissioned by MediaCorp TV - Channel U to produce a 13-part Mandarin documantary series scheduled to air primetime evenings on Channel U this September (TDS episode is scheduled to air on Sept 30th at 9:30PM). Trying to cover so much activities for the filming, I apologised for somewhat chaotic in the one hour PAT session of AAA and AAT. However, we managed to cover the following:

Dumb-bell, ball or toy throwing for therapy dog to retrieve - this is a form of physiotherapy for the residents who may be unwilling to do their regular exercises
Counting numbers activity - this help the ID residents to work on mental skills. It gives them a sense of fulfillment when our therapy dog picks the right number.
Flash cards play - this game encourages the residents to read and speak. It gives them a sense of fulfillment when our therapy dog "gets it right" and obeys their commands
Memory game - using pictures of our dogs - as a mental exercise game, to exercise their memory skills and get a sense of achievement when they can remwmber
Mini Agility - weaving poles, through tunnel & over jump - offering some kind of entertainment

My apologies also to those dogs who had signed up and did not participate in the respective activity. It was my fault as I overlooked and the activity i/c did not remind me. Well, we learn from experience!

Please be informed our 1st Friday visit to AWWA Special School for Children will be postponed because of school holidays. We will meet again on our next visit to TTHSC and BMNH. Please check out our website for more details on these 2 upcoming visits.

Warmest regards
Charlie Ho

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Visit on 22 August 2008 - MINDSville

Howdy to all TDS volunteers,

My sincere apologies for the delay in sending out this report - blame it on Olympics fever on top of a pile of work waiting for me to attend to.

The Friday troopers made their monthly visit to MINDSville on 22nd August and we once again put some cheer on the patients and staff alike. It is heartening as usual to see how much the staff and the residents enjoy and welcome our company - most of the residents could recognize us by now and would squeal with laughter when we enter the multi-purpose hall, reach out to us for the balls and toys for throwing exercises and offering to take the leash of our dogs for their walking exercises. We continued to have favorable reports from the coordinators and therapists at MINDSville saying how much the residents have improved and how the staff all want to be rostered on to be part of the program. This week, we bid a sad farewell to Jessie, the coordinator and initiator of the Pet Assisted Activity & Therapy program at MINDSville, as she moves onto a new job. I would like to commend her for taking the road less travelled (as opposed to the more traditional methodologies in psychotherapy) and believing in pet therapy - it has been great knowing you and working with you, and I surely would miss you heaps! Best of luck for the new job!! The coordinator job would be taken over by the resident occupational therapist, Sridevi, who is actually on maternity leave at the moment, and in the interim, we have Sandra, helping us out for the next few months.

This week, we ran our usual therapy program with 30 minutes of specific exercises tailored individually tailored to the residents - some focusing on gripping, arm movements and hand-eye coordination, some on life-skills and some on gross motor movement such as walking. The remaining of the time, we re-ran our fashion show (doggy dressup), this time, with more contribution from our resident 'designers'. We had a ball on the dog-walk! This week, we also achieved some small but significant milestones - we have managed to get a resident to verbalize and another to learn how to throw balls.

My sincere thanks to my dedicated Friday Troopers

1. Alicia Chue with Diva / Labrador Retriever & Magic / Labrador Retriever
2. Evelyn and Francis Yip with Cash / Corgi
3. Melinda Ann Michael and Shaun with Chewy / Catalan Sheepdog & Cleo / Miniature Dachshund
4. Charlie Ho with Silky / Golden Retriever & Stallion / German Shepherd Dog
5. Chenny Tan - Helping Hand
6. Louiza Chan with Grace-Pie / Spoodle & Beatrice-Bear / Spoodle

A couple of warm get-well-soon wishes to Xi'An and Lily! Hope you guys are feeling better now!

There will not be any PAT visit next Friday as it is the 5th Friday of the month. The next Friday visit will be on 6th September to AWWA. Please stay tuned for details.

Until next time,

Louiza, Grace and Beatrice

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Visit on 17 August 2008 - Ward 66A Institute of Mental Health (IMH) 

Dear TDS PAT volunteers

A million thanks to those who made time for our IMH friends on Sunday! As I reflect on the visit, I feel amazed, and at the same time humbled, that our 17 furry friends and 21 human volunteers (quite a record!) could make such a difference to the day (and probably the whole week as well!) of the patients. Thank you for extending your hand of friendship. I hope it was an enjoyable and worthwhile experience for you all, as it was for me.

The Mediacorp filming crew was present to film our volunteers in action for an episode of "Ordinary People, Extraordinary Passion", which so very aptly describes us all and our passion to bring cheer to the less privileged together with our dogs. It was somewhat chaotic as we had to cover many activities, but we finally managed to cover the following:

1. doggie dress-up activity, which gave the patients an opportunity to exercise creativity and make little decisions;
2. dumbbell throwing using different weights and sizes, to exercise patients arms;
3. counting game, to exercise patients' mental abilities;
4. memory game, to help improve their memory;
5. walking exercise to stretch their limbs and enjoy a little outing in the beautiful grounds of IMH.

1. Charlie Ho with Stallion/GSD
2. Mabel Ho with Silky/Golden Retriever
3. Tricia Tan with Freo/Silky Terrier
4. Ann Wee with Vickie/Maltese
Amanda Richardson with Tixi / GSD
6. Melinda Ann Michael and son Shane with Chewy/ Catalan Sheepdog and Cleo/Daschund
7. Helga Kuhl and friend Mickey with Hilde/Lab Cross
8. Bian Yu Wei and friend Constance with Rafa/Miniature Schnauzer
9. Chia Phing Phing with Brandy/Shih Tzu
10. Joshua Koh with Samuel/Bernese Mountain Dog
11. Pearly Cheong with Caleb/Bernese Mountain Dog
12. Pauline Tan and son Brian with Sunny/Golden Retriever
13. Shum Chin Yang with McMug/JRT
14. Evangeline Koh, nephews Sebastian and Harrison with Pepper and Perdi/Shetland sheepdogs
15. Jaclyn Lim with Starkey/Shih Tzu
16. Teng Soo Fen with Polar/Samoyed

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Visit on 15 August 2008- Sunshine Welfare Action Mission Home (SWAMI) 

Hello all volunteers,

Just a short one from me this week - a small group of the Friday Troopers trekked to Sunshine Welfare Action Mission Home (SWAMI) today to share some love with the patients at the dementia ward. We were greeted by lots of smiley faces and warm welcomes from the patients and the staff alike. This week, on top of our well-received walking exercises with our poochies, we also did some dumbell throwing and some verbal training exercises with the less verbal patients. It was great to see that some patients actually remember us and our dogs from previous visits (though Rex, the staff in charge assured us that they are in early stages of dementia, and hence they still have some memory), and one of the uncles there must have done a marathon with Diva by doing laps up and down the hallway and refusing to let go!


A sincere thank you to Charlie and his angels :) this week:

1. Charlie Ho with Silky / Golden Retriever
2. Alicia Chue with Diva / Labrador Retriever
3. Judy Blyth and Scarlett with Cara / Miniature Schnauzer
4. Louiza Chan with Grace-Pie / Spoodle and Beatrice-Bear / Spoodle

A smaller than usual troop, but none-the-less, we've brought a welcomed break from the routine to the patients and smiles on their faces.

Best wishes from Grace and Bea (and from me, of course) for Magic and Stallion - GET WELL SOON BOYS!! The girls are all missing you both :)

Our next Friday visit is to MINDSville, please refer to our website for more details.

And until next time (next week, I guess...) - catch some action with the telecast of the Olympics, but don't forget to give your poochies some love!

Louiza, Grace and Beatrice. xx

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Visit on 8 August 2008- Thong Teck Home for Senior Citizens (TTHSC)

Hi Fellow Volunteers,

The month of August visit was quite an exciting PAT session and a bit chaotic as we carried out the pilot therapy activities covering: throwing ball, toy for the dogs to retrieve, memory card game and dooggie dress-up for 3 groups of residents. Although everyone enjoyed the activities but I felt we need to improve the team work between the staff of TTHSC and our PAT team. We shall iron out the hiccups once we are getting more experience. We, however, had a wonderful time interacting with the residents. Many thanks to the following volunteers and their partners who were presence to cheer up the residents.

1. Louiza Chan with Beatrice / Spoodle
2. Francis & Evelyn with Cash / Corgi
3. Constance Ong with Xian /  Labradoodle
4. Alicia Chue with Diva / Labrador Retriever
5. Soo Fen & daughter Emily with Polar / Samoyed
6. Chia Phing Phing with Brandy / Shih Tzu
7. Angela Khoo with Banyan / Poodle
8. Magaret Suganda with Frisky / Shih Tzu
9. Mabel Ho with Silky / Golden Retriever
10. Charlie Ho with Stallion / GSD

A warm welcome to Angela Khoo with Banyan, Chia Phing Phing with Brandy, Magaret Suganda with Frisky, on their first visit to TTHSC. They interacted very well with the residents like a pro. The staff of TTHSC and the residents had a fun time dressing up these dogs. I hope to see them on our next visit and beyond.

Our achievements were:
Cognitive/Communication /Socialisation Therapy:
-- encourage creativity and interaction among residents and with volunteers through dressing-up the dogs
-- encouraging the residents to talk about their good old happy days. Through conversation, elderly residents maintain mental agility

Motor/Physical/Sensory Therapy:
- encourage physical therapy exercise by walking with the dogs
- helping the patients to exercise their memories through the memory game
-- encouraging the residents to throw dumbbell, ball, for our dogs to retrieve - this is a form of physiotherapy
-- motivating and assisting the residents to move their hands to pat and stroke the dogs

Please look out for our circular on next visit. You can also visit our website for the details and updates.

Warmest regards
Charlie Ho

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