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About Pet Hug Fund™ |
Theo and Robin
Individuals who have mental illness or low self esteem tend to focus on themselves. Animals can help them focus on their environment. Rather than thinking and talking about themselves and their problems, they watch and talk to and about the animals. A perfect example of fulfilling that benefit occurred at the Villa Fairmont Psychiatric Hospital in San Leandro. We had spent the entire morning there in a securely locked courtyard with patients interacting with our therapy animals. At the conclusion of our program, the staff announced that the visit had come to an end and that all patients should return to the building to “check in” and be accounted for.
As we were getting ready to leave, Robin and I were carrying on a conversation with a vivacious woman whom we assumed was an employee. She was stroking Theo, a large, colorful parrot. Moments later, an alarm sounded and staff members came running out of the hospital looking for a missing patient. They hurriedly ran over to us and were just incredulous at what they were observing. This woman had been mute since being admitted to this facility and had not spoken at all during the entire time she had been a patient at Villa Fairmont.
The following day, the hospital director phoned to thank us and inform us that the experience with our therapy animals might be the catalyst for this patient beginning to heal. Our therapy pet had brought her “out of herself.”
Lyon Ranch Therapy Animals, Sonoma, CA