For elderly, pets are ideal therapy

Program makes life worth living

By HARRY JACKSON JR.

KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS


ST. LOUIS - Katie jumps from the lap of Violet Eichholtz, who has just rolled into the picnic courtyard of the nursing home. The little dog checks the area to sniff and identify strangers and friends. Her reconnaissance done, she's back in the lap where she'll await new instructions.

Katie and Eichholtz look at each other and smile - Eichholtz with smiling, pursed lips and Katie with high-beam eyes and poodle tail that moves like a metronome.

Eichholtz is a resident of the NHC nursing home in Maryland Heights, Mo. Although she has always had animals in her life, Katie is more than special.

"I wouldn't be able to live" without Katie, Eichholtz says. "She listens to me. She keeps me company."

Susan Taylor, administrator at NHC, started the animal program at the home nine years ago to help raise the spirits of residents, who often sank into melancholy and loneliness.

The need was for companionship, entertainment and unconditional love, she said. Animals seemed happy to oblige.

"We wanted to create a home," she said. "We wanted to make it more loving.

When you walk into the home, a boxer named Liza may be the greeter. An enormous rabbit named Houdini sits in a closed box - get it? - near the door to a courtyard; the top opens so anyone can pet him.

In the courtyard are two sheep named Bill and Hillary, a decorative chicken named Crisco and a gray-brown miniature horse named Coco, who likes to taste clothing.

Wild birds are welcome and never stop talking.

Many residents, such as Eichholtz, own their own pets - fish, birds, dogs and cats - and keep them in their rooms.

The experiment has drawn a lot of attention. Faculty members from counseling programs at St. Louis University and Lindenwood University have visited the facility.

"They've found that the rates of depression have really decreased," Taylor said.

Experts aren't sure why, but there's evidence that it's more than just a lick on the nose or the cuddle of a furry, warm buddy that improves the health of pet owners and even the pets.

Nevertheless, a small family of researchers in medical and veterinary schools is studying the effects of interaction between people and their pets, especially for older people.

Cases such as that of Eichholtz and Katie could signal that using animals as companions is one way to stem depression and loneliness that people suffer as they grow older and more isolated.

Frequently, as people age, they're affected by loneliness, abandonment, poor economics and poor health, says Rebecca Johnson, a researcher with the University of Missouri at Columbia College of Veterinary Medicine Center for the Study of Animal Wellness.

"Animals provide a source of unconditional love and support," Johnson said.

Furry pets aren't the only animals that can have beneficial effects.

Alan Beck, director of the School of Veterinary Medicine at Purdue University in Lafayette, Ind., found that people with Alzheimer's ate more when they watched a tank full of large goldfish.

"One of the major problems with people with advanced Alzheimer's is that they don't eat," Beck said. "None of the triggers of hunger is there."

Beck said the research team worked from "the whole biophilia hypothesis, that people are attracted to nature."

Researchers have pretty much decided that people benefit from being with pets, and pets seem to benefit, too. But the reason why is not totally understood.

So far, the benefit seems to be lots of stimulation on many levels: visual, tactile, emotional.

"In everything except the fish," she said, "you get input on all of the senses and there's a release of beneficial chemicals that liven up the effects of aging.

"Older people who own pets have been found to walk more, have better triglyceride and cholesterol levels, and have better moods. And pet owners have been found to have better one-year survival after heart attack than non-pet owners.

"This could affect the incidence of depression across the lifespan. We're not saying that everyone should get a dog, but we're hoping this may be a potentially helpful, complimentary therapy."

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