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January 2008 Visits
Visit on 26 January 2008 - Bishan Home for the Intellectually Disabled (BHID)
Hi, Fellow Volunteers,
As usual the residents greeted us with big smiles and warm
handshakes as we entered to the auditorium. The
residents moved around merrily to hug and pet our therapy
dogs whilst waiting
BHID
staff to set up the DVD player to screen last
month Christmas PAT visit video. The residents began smiling
and talking, even the toothless ones, when they saw
themselves on TV. I might not understand what they said
but their body languages were signs of joy and happiness
Presents were:
Thank you volunteers for your valuable time.
Our achievements are:
Cognitive / Communication / Socialisation Therapy
- encourage residents to remember the names of the
dogs.
- asking residents to give basic obedience cues to
our dogs and successfully responded the desired
behaviours.
Motor / Physical / Sensory Therapy
- Walking a dog, throwing a dumbbell, reaching to
touch and bending to pet the our therapy dogs.
Our next visit is to AWWA Special School for
children. Please visit our website for the details.
Warmest regards,
Charlie Ho
Visit on 25 January 2008 -
MINDSville
Thank you to the following
volunteers and their therapy dogs:
Our achievements are:
Cognitive / Communication /
Socialisation Therapy
- Encourage patients to describe
dogs and carry conversation with our volunteers and fellow
patients.
- Encouage patients to count, name body parts and colors
- Asking patients to give a sequence
of commands to our dogs and to recall their names thus exercise
memory skills
Motor / Physical / Sensory Therapy
- Walking a dog, throwing a
dumbbell/ball/toy, reaching to touch and bending to pet the our
therapy dogs
- Visual stimulation with the
presence of dogs and watching them do tricks (or failing in
their tricks and laughing about it)
Our next visit to MINDSville will be
on Friday 22nd February. In the meantime, please visit our
website:
www.tdspore.org for the details of other TDS visits.
With woofs and kisses from Grace and Beatrice and warmest regards, Louiza
Visit on 20 January 2008 -
Institute of Mental Health (IMH)
The ladies at ward 66A warmly welcomed
us and our four-legged angels. We could see their smiling faces as
we entered the ward. Two residents asked "where is the big white
dog?' I believe they were asking for Pola. Mabel & I told them that
Pola could not come because mummy Soo Fen had to attend an urgent
matter . They were quite emotional and cried on hearing that Pola
won't be here. Their faces brightened up when we told them that Pola
will be here next month and we will be serving them nasi lemak soon.
A big thank you to Soo Fen who went all
the way to cook the nasi lemak. Many thanks also to volunteers who
helped to serve the nasi lemak and drink and even helped to feed
some of the frail ladies. They really enjoyed the nasi lemak and
some of them asked for a second serving!. The nasi lemak aroma could
tell that it is very tasty and even the lean and hungry looking
Stallion whose dripping saliva acknowledged it.
We did not go down to the void deck for
a walking exercise as the residents took a much longer time enjoying
the nasi lemak. However, the residents took our dogs for a walking
exercise around the ward.
As usual the residents interacted first
with our therapy dogs and then started to communicate with the
handlers. Perdi / Shetland Sheepdog could put most of the therapy
dogs in shame as she could sit on the lap of a wheel-chair bound
resident for a long, long time without making noise or looking for
her owner.
I wish to thank the following volunteers
for giving up their precious Sunday afternoon to come with their
beloved therapy dogs to bring cheers to the residents:
Cognitive / Communication /
Socialisation Therapy
- encourage patients to remember the
names of the dogs.
- provide stimulation, conversation
and companionship
Motor / Physical / Sensory Therapy
- encourage therapy exercise by
walking with the dog
- helping the residents who are
depressed and lonely to response more subtly to the
unconditional love that our therapy dogs offer.
Our next visit to IMH falls on the
11th day of the chinese lunar new year of the RAT. May I check
with each of you whether you have any idea / activity in which
you feel that we can share the joy and love of CNY with the
ladies at ward 66.... please let Soo Fen or I know.
On behalf of Soo Fen and family,
wishing you and your loved ones a Happy Lunar New Year. May the
RAT year bring abundance of good health, fortune and peace at
home and place of work.
Warmest regards
Charlie Ho
Visit on 18 January 2008 -
SWAMI
Hi Fellow Volunteers,
This is our first visit in the new year
2008. 5 of us and 6 therapy dogs spent an enjoyable one fruitful
hour at SWAMI Home. As the PAT session progressed and with a little
help from our therapy dogs, we could see the transformation of these
dementia patients from withdrawn and reserved to cheerful and
talkative with much more life and glitter in their eyes .... a clear
evidence of the healing power of canine assisted therapy. Nancy Tan
with Paddy/Whippet started the ball rolling in bringing the patient
for a walking exercise. It encouraged the other dementia patients to
do likewise thus helping them to improve morale and encourage
patients to work on therapy exercise. Furthermore, Stallion
retrieved his favourite dumbbell patients throw for him, thus
helping patients strengthen coordination skills. Smaller dogs, Cleo
and Grace, provide natural physiotherapy as the patients moved
forward to pet them, thus encouraging them to use of hands and arms,
stretching and turning.
Last but not least, by popular demand,
our dancing therapy dog, Stella, and her handler, Sabine, danced
gracefully in rhythm of the chinese music .... "west meets east"
brought in loads of laughter and clapping hands.
My heartfelt thanks to the following
volunteers and their therapy dogs:
Our achievements are:
Cognitive / Communication /
Socialisation Therapy
- Encourage patients to describe
dogs, formulate short converse with our volunteers.
- asking patients to give a sequence
of commands to our dogs thus exercise memory skills
Motor / Physical / Sensory Therapy
- Walking a dog, throwing a
dumbbell, reaching to touch and bending to pet the our therapy
dogs
- An entertaining therapy dog
provides a welcome diversion to distract a patient from pain.
Smiles and laughter are great medicine.
Our next visit to SWAMI Home falls
on the 9th day of the lunar chinese new year. We shall plan
something for the elderly patients. Please watch out for the
announcement in early February. In the meantime, please visit
our website:
www.tdspore.org for the details of our next visit.
May I take this opportunity in
wishing you a Happy Chinese New Year. May the year of the Rat
brings you Good Health, Happiness and Prosperity.
Warmest regards
Charlie Ho
Visit on
11 January 2008 -
Thong Teck Home for Senior Citizen
Hi Fellow Volunteers,
Our PAT team brought their canine
partners to help the ever cheerful aunties and uncles of TTHSC
welcome in the New Year. Our seasoned therapy dogs spent good time
with the residents, many of them become quite familiar with
us. Resident Koo Chan was very popular with our dogs as she ever
ready fed our dogs with her tubful of treats. Stallion instantly
said "hello" (2 barks) to her, in return, Stallion earned yummy
treats. The residents had a fun time feeding our greedy therapy dogs
which eagerly performed tricks to earn their treats. We had a dog
race, bringing loads of laughter - the contestants were: Grace,
Stalla, Pepper and Zenie. Whoa! Our petite Grace/Spoodle, a 25
yards doggie olympic sprinter, came in first in less than 6 seconds.
My heartfelt thanks to the following
volunteers:
We had indeed a wonderful one hour good
time interacting with the residents of TTHSC. Our therapeutic
goals were achieved through team work:
Cognitive / Communication /
Socialisation Therapy
- encourage the residents to pet the
dogs. The smiles and conversation that follow was a major step in
that resident's battle against depression.
- helping the residents to relax and
"open up" to others.
- helping some long term residents to
remember the dogs' names and eagerly to petting the dogs.
Motor / Physical / Sensory Therapy
- an entertaining activity, such as dog
race, provides a welcome diversion to distract the residents from
pain. Smiles and laughter are a great medicine!
- encourage interest in physical therapy
- petting a dog's shining coat feel good and throwing dumbbell for
the dog to retrieve feel great
The month of February 8th visit to TTHSC
falls on the 2nd day of Chinese Lunar New Year. It will be postponed
as it's a public holiday. We hope to visit TTHSC on the 29th Febuary
with plan to have a fun event i.e. dog modelling activity. Please
look out for our circular and also visit our website for the
details.
Warmest regards
Charlie Ho
Visit on 5 January 2008 - Bethany Methodist Nursing Home (BMND) Dear Volunteers,
Apologies for the belated report as a number of work deadlines caught up with me.
I hope all of you have had a great start to the year so far! In any case, in spite of the rain, we had a great visit to Bethany Methodist Nursing Home on 5 January 2008 which marked our first visit to Bethany and also the of year 2008.
Special thanks to the following volunteers and their furry friends that day:
Thanks to Sigi and Sian Yee for their hospitality and warm open arms in having us there. Thanks to Orchid for her ever willingness to help out to baby sit and take Brutus, Cocoa and a few of our doggies around to greet the Bethany Uncles and Aunties. The dogs seemed very comfortable in her care.
The Achievements of the Day… The following was achieved through the session... Cognitive/Communication /Socialisation Therapy: -- helping the residents talk about themselves and the past week; -- encouraging residents to talk to each other about their experiences handling the dogs; -- helping the residents to focus their attention on watching the dogs perform simple tricks; -- encouraging the residents to smile for the camera
Motor/Physical/Sensory Therapy: -- motivating the residents to move their hands to carry and cuddle the dogs -- giving opportunity to residents to bend forward from their regular sitting positions to pat the dogs; -- encouraging residents to hug and stroke the dogs; -- getting them to feed the dogs treats; -- encouraging residents to shake hands with the dogs -- encouraging residents to interact with the dogs by playing fetch. (Stallion did a great job in retrieving the dumbell, despite the ever-tempting distraction of treats along the way.)
Simply Cool Happenings… Some cool things which happened in that session included Sian Yee loaning Brutus a wheelchair so that he could get about to allow the residents to pat him with ease. Brutus was definitely the centre of attention that day....he looked so cute and comfortable and definitely won the smiles and affection from all … even the nurses there couldn't stop snapping pictures of him. Plus, I'm sure he had one enjoyable ride! As usual, Holicks was so obedient and was set to head right down to the beach anytime. She donned a nice fitted straw had with a red bandanna and even had her very own set of goggles. Now, talk about knowing how to enjoy life! Visit Schedule for Feb 2008 and Mar 2008. Please note there will not be any visit in Feb 2008 because of the Chinese New Year break. The visits will continue to take place on the 2nd Sat of each month thereafter. March visit will be on 8 Mar 2008. We hope to see our regulars back in full force then and am sure the Uncles and Aunties would be really happy to see us again after the long break. New volunteers or those of you who have been missing in action for some time, hope to see you soon too! Please do visit our website at www.tdspore.org for the latest updates on upcoming visits.
Till our next visit to Bethany, here’s wishing everyone and your doggies an early Lunar New Year and many the year of the Rat bring you, your doggies and your families good health, happiness and prosperity.
Take Care & Best regards, Rebecca
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