November 2008 Visits

Visit on 29 November 2008 - Bishan Home for the Intellectually Disabled (BHID)

Hi Fellow Volunteers,

My heartfelt thanks to all PAT volunteers for making the visit and giving up the precious Saturday afternoon of the school holiday to bring joy and happiness to the less fortunate I hope you have have had a wonderful time with the cheerful residents.

Present were:

1. Mak Mun San with Flash / Welsh Springer Spaniel
2. Amanda Richardson with Tixi / GSD
3. Lok Tin Chan & hubby Steven with Bobby / Shih Tzu
4. Helga Kuhl with Hilde / Labrador
5. Richard Soon with Bubbles / Golden Retriever & Shorty / JRK
6. Eunice Wang with Baileys / Shetland Sheepdog
7. Rebecca Kwan with Cocoa / Maltese
8. Arlene Ng with Butter / Maltese
9. Jacqueline Wong with Lena Mou Mou / Pomeranian
10. Charlie Ho with Stallion / GSD

A very warm welcome back Mak Mun San with her new PAT dog Flash / Welsh Springer Spaniel, a retired drug sniffer dog. They are indeed a great team in PAT session. Most of us will remember Mun San, an experienced PAT volunteer, and her lovable Didi / Beagle. I always enjoyed and will never forget the tricks Didi got into and made us laugh the way very few dogs could at each PAT session. Didi passed away on March 27 but he will always be in our heart ... a PAT dog who brought so much joy to so many people.

A warm welcome also to Nora Agoes who came to observe our activities. I believe she has brought her dog Elvis / Golden Retriever for the temperament assessment on 30 Oct. I hope to see Nora and Elvis in action soon.

Time is moving as fast as F1 because Christmas is just around the corner. I plan to hold a special Christmas visit on Saturday, 20th December 2008. Santa Claus and Rheindogs are in town to spread Christmas joys and happiness with the residents. We will distribute goodie bags and if possible including New Zealand Natural Ice-Cream. Please book this meaningful date and watch out my announcement on that week.

Please be informed our 1st Friday visit to AWWA Special School for Children is being postponed because of school holidays. Our next visit is to TTHSC on 12 Dec. and to BMNH on 13 Dec. Please check out our website for more details.

Warmest regards
Charlie Ho

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Visit on 28 November 2008 - MINDSville

Dear fellow volunteers,

Firstly, my apologies for the delayed report - it is by no means an indication of what we have achieved the past Friday.

It is with great pleasure that I report to you all on yet another successful Friday visit - we were greeted with lovely smiles and happy cheers all round, and many of the residents being keen-beans to be the first to pat our therapy dogs, to take them for a walk, to brush them and to walk them around the multi-purpose hall. We noted significant progress with some of the residents that have been with the program right from the start - we have definitely seen improvement in some of the patient's speech and socialisation skills on top of their fine and gross motor skills. We have also been trying to work our magic on the newer participants, to try and warm them up to our dogs - some days we are more successful that others.

My heartfelt thanks to the volunteers who took time off from their busy schedules to join us

1. Alicia Isreal, helper and young friend with Magic / Labrador Retriever and Diva / Labrador Retriever
2. Charlie Ho with Stallion / German Shepherd Dog
3. Francis and Evelyn Yip with Cash / Corgi
4. Chenny Tan - helping hand who help handled Grace for the first time

and for the records of attendance 5. Louiza Chan with Grace-Pie / Spoodle and Beatrice-Bear / Spoodle

The upcoming Friday's visit to AWWA has been cancelled due to school holidays, so the next Friday visit shall be to Thong Teck Home on December 12th.

Till next time, enjoy the festive season!

Louiza, Grace and Beatrice.xx

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Visit on 21 November 2008 - Sunshine Welfare Action Mission Home (SWAMI)

Hello all Therapy Dog Singapore volunteers,

I'm pleased to report on another fruitful session at SWAMI home this past Friday (November 21st). This week, we met up with the new occupational therapist Errol, who will be taking over Rex's job at the dementia ward. Rex will be sadly missed and I hope he's going to still pop by when we are there for our monthly visits - us volunteers will miss your enthusiasm and jokes!!!

This week, we continued our usual and always well-received dog-walking exercises - it is always fabulous to see the enthusiasm of the patients eagerly wanting to be the first to walk the dogs, or the first to touch them, and then not wanting to let go. There were lots of chats and laughter in multiple languages (most of which I'm still yet to pick up after a year and a half in Singapore) - but the smiles, hand gestures and the tone in their voices says it all and I am glad we were able to bring a glimmer of light into their lives. A couple of interesting happenings during this month's visit - I don't think any volunteers and staff that were there could forget how hard Cash worked at 'pulling' an uncle's wheelchair with him saying 'Cash go! Cash go!' and Alicia kindly pointed out that we should be saying 'Cash come' instead nowadays. And how we are amused by the talents of the patients every month - one of the aunties even gave Beatrice some Doga (as opposed to Yoga for the uninitiated) Therapy and sang songs in Hokkien, Chinese and English to her!

My heartfelt thanks to the volunteers and their poochies for their never-failing hardwork and dedication:

1. Charlie Ho with Stallion / German Shepherd Dog
2. Alicia Isreal and niece with Diva / Labrador Retriever and Magic / Labrador Retriever
3. Francis and Evelyn Yip with Cash / Corgi
4. Paola Ng who helped me handled Grace and Beatrice superbly

and we welcome Lyn Woodruff as an observer to Therapy Dogs Singapore - I hope you and Elvis can come join us as volunteers soon!

And for the records, moi -
5. Louiza Chan with Grace-Pie / Spoodle and Beatrice-Bear / Spoodle

The next weekday visit would be to MINDSville @ Napiri - please refer to the mail out or TDS website for further details.

Until next week!

Louiza, Grace and Beatrice. xx

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Visit on 16 November 2008 - Ward 66A Institute of Mental Health (IMH) 

Hi everyone
It was really good to see a great turnout on Sunday 16 Nov. Many thanks to those who responded to my call for more big-hearted volunteers to visit our friends at IMH. We had a very respectable turnout of 12 dogs & 16 volunteers, who were warmly welcomed by the patients of Ward 66A.
We were pleased to welcome Rashmi, who joined parents Usha and Balaji and their Shih Tzu Cookie for her first visit. As usual, we had our regular walking exercise, which is becoming a great hit among the patients, as more and more of them now look forward to it each time we visit. Many thanks to those who make the effort to get to know the patients during the walk and give them the chance to socialise. Those patients who stayed behind in the ward had a chance to hug and pat the dogs and interact with our volunteers.
We also had some enthusiastic singing by the patients themselves, from Chinese and English oldies (of 60's/70's vintage), to Christmas carols, to Hokkien and Cantonese songs. The singing drew them out from their shells as they showed off their talents. It was good to be able to have them entertain themselves and us at the same time :) As they are all so keen on singing, I am thinking we should sing some Christmas carols at our next visit, which will be just before Christmas, on 21 Dec. If you are interested to help out in this, please let me know!

For the record, the wonderful team comprised:

1. Charlie Ho with Stallion/GSD
2. Tricia Tan with Freo/Silky Terrier
3. Doris Boo with Bambi/Silky Terrier
4. Greg and LIndsay Lanham with Maisie and Boomer/Westie
5. Helga Kuhl with Hilde/Lab Cross
6. Bian Yu Wei and friend Ivan Ng with Rafa/Mini Schnauzer
7. Shum Chin Yang with McMug/JRT
8. Balaji, wife Usha and daughter Rashmi with Cookie/Shih Tzu
9. Evangeline and nephew Harrison with Pepper and Perdi/Shetland Sheepdogs
10. Emily Lui and Mum Soo Fen with Polar/Samoyed

Thank you for making a BIG difference that day -- one dog, one volunteer, to one patient at a time :) I went home tired but happy, and I hope you did too!


cheers
Soo Fen

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Visit on 14 November 2008- Thong Teck Home for Senior Citizens (TTHSC)

Hi Fellow Volunteers,

We had a fruitful happy hour of therapy dog / resident session. My heartfelt thanks to our hard core volunteers who gave up their precious Friday afternoon to share their loving dogs who unconditionally gave their attention to cheer up our fellow senior citizens.

Present were:

1. Francis & Evelyn Yip with Cash / Corgi
2. Alicia Chue with Diva / Labrador Retriever
3. Louiza Chan and mum with Grace & Beatrice / Spoodle
4. Melinda Ann Michael with Chewy / Catalan Sheepdog and Cleo / Daschund
5. Paola Ng - Helping Hand - who helped to handle Beatrice
6. Charlie Ho with Stallion / GSD

With food motivation, we got our four legged gang to do some impromptu tricks but the food also brought out the gluttonous side of our beloved k9 especially, Stallion, the k9 clown who got addtiional treats from Mdm Koo Chan.

Getting the residents to start a conversation about themselves or their pets can work on cognitive and knowledge skills. Walking a dog, throwing a ball / dumbbell, reaching to touch our dogs or bending to pet our dogs all increase gross motor skills. We have achieved all these exercises during the session.

Do visit our website for details for our upcoming visits. We will be visiting SWAMI Home on this Friday, 21st
November.

Warmest regards
Charlie Ho

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Visit on  8 November 2008- Bethany Methodist Nursing Home (BMNH)

Dear TDS Volunteers and Friends of BMNH,


HIP HIP HOORAY! It's beeen 2 years since we became a regular family member to BMNH with our monthly visits.

Thanks to all who made the effort to join us at BMNH last Saturday 8th November where it was a fun filled afternoon for our regular volunteers, our very own healing paws, members from the Covenant Community Methodist Church, BMNH staff and most importantly our resident friends at Bethany.

There were smiles, laughter, encouragement and applauses which echoed through the room as we celebrated our 2nd Anniversary visit to Bethany Methodist Nursing Home.

We were welcomed by BMNH staff including a speech by Mrs Moh Han (Director of BMNH) and the support and assistance from Sian Ann and Jeslyn Li.

Sian Yee who continues to show her commitment and support to the home even after her departure from BMNH.

We had with us our TDS volunteers;
1. Charlie Ho and Stallion (German Shepherd)
2.. Soo Fen and sisters Elaine and Emily Lui with Polar (Samoyed)
3. Pearly Cheong & Joshua with the foursome furries; Samuel and Caleb (Burnese Mountain Dogs), Grace (Border Collie) and Gabriel (Rough Collie)
4. Patricia Koh with Brutus (English Bulldog)
5. Jacqueline with Lina (Pomeranian)
6. Jerlyn and Howard with Fluffy (Shitzu)
8. Helga with Hilde (Labrador Cross)
9. Melissa Tan with Horlicks (Labrador Retriever) and Mooji (Chihuahua)
10. Rebecca Kwan with Cocoa (Maltese)
11. Judy and Jason with Joie on their 2nd visit to the BMNH
12. Lille Tien with Ollie (Poodle) on their first visit to BMNH
13. Orchid
14. Wendy (Pearly’s friend who came as an observer)
15. Loh Wei Chin and Kunshan Goh who are occupational Therapists and joined us on their first visit as volunteers.

Students volunteers from Pioneer Junior College
1. Geraldine Chan Wan Xian
2. June Koh Jia Na
3. Jasmine Tan Jia Min
4. Ong Rui An
5. Lim Chor Chuan
6. Wan Hui Min
7. Ang Zheng Yi
8. Woo Yai Quan
9. Chua Zhi Hao
10. Li Hai

Visitors from Convenant Community Methodist Church
1. Scott and Lou Anne Dulaney
2. Brenda and Andrew with Pearly (Maltese)
3. Ivfen, Kakit and Vivien

We achieved success in the following areas during the session;
- Motor / Physical / Sensory Therapy Skills (through the Pass the Ball Game)
- Cognitive / Communication / Socialisation Therapy

There’s a lot of people to thank, so I do hope I’ve not missed anyone out.

I’d like to extend a Special Thanks to Pearly and Johsua who took charge and really put in a lot of effort to plan for this session while I was away, from the Pass the Ball Game to goodie bags for the residents. Getting help from her friend to bake mini muffins for the residents sponsoring the drinks. The uncles and aunties had a fantastic time and were really overjoyed that there was so many things happening.

Other great helpers included Sian Yee who MC’ed the session and explained to the residents on the rules of the ‘Pass the ball game’ and the students and volunteers who helped to keep the game going and in control.

Thanks to BMNH Management for arranging the spread of delightful goodies, the sumptuous mee siam and chicken wings and the specially home-baked carrot cake. It was really nice of you and all of us definitely appreciate it from the bottom of our hearts.

Once again, on behalf of TDS, we sincerely thank BMNH for all the support they have given us in the past 2 years which has made the monthly visits possible. We are glad to hear that we have through our visits, made a difference to the lives of those residents at BMNH and we look forward to many more years of anniversaries ahead.

To our TDS volunteers and all the doggies, keep up the great work and I look forward to having you join us consistently at each monthly visit.

Our next visit is schedule on 13th Dec 2008. Do lookout for the reminder notice next month.

Wishing all a fantastic week ahead!

Cheers,
Rebecca & lil’ Cocoa

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