A calming effect

Conway Regional uses pets to help senior patients

A patient in the Conway Regional Medical Center Senior Behavioral Health unit pets Bebe, the newest therapy dog for the unit. Donna Beshears, an activity therapist for the Conway Regional Health System, said pet therapy has been used for more than 10 years in the unit because studies show that dogs can calm patients with dementia. Bebe’s owner, Linda Desrochers of Conway, said she also takes the 6 1/2-year-old cockapoo to nursing homes and has visited students during finals week at Hendrix College and the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.
A patient in the Conway Regional Medical Center Senior Behavioral Health unit pets Bebe, the newest therapy dog for the unit. Donna Beshears, an activity therapist for the Conway Regional Health System, said pet therapy has been used for more than 10 years in the unit because studies show that dogs can calm patients with dementia. Bebe’s owner, Linda Desrochers of Conway, said she also takes the 6 1/2-year-old cockapoo to nursing homes and has visited students during finals week at Hendrix College and the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.

A cockapoo named Bebe, the newest pet-therapy dog at Conway Regional Medical Center, licked an elderly patient on the face, and the woman laughed.

“He kissed me on the cheek,” the woman said. “I love dogs; I love to play with dogs.”

The woman was a patient in the hospital’s Senior Behavioral Health unit, which has been using pet therapy for more than 10 years, said Donna Beshears, activity therapist for the Conway Regional Health System. The patients in that unit have dementia or depression, she said, and the average length of stay is 12 to 14 days.

When pet therapy was first suggested for the unit, Beshears said, she researched it.

“Studies say it helps reduce agitation in dementia patients. It’s supposed to have a calming effect, and I have seen that myself,” Beshears said. “It’s very relaxing to our patients to just sit and watch [the pets].”

Even nonverbal patients will sometimes talk to the dogs, if not a person, Beshears said. “It’s like all of a sudden you see [the patients] light up, and they come to life,” she said.

It can help patients physically, too. “You may not get them to move, but all of a sudden, you see them throwing a ball,” she said.

This particular Saturday morning was the first time at the hospital for Bebe and her owner, Linda Desrochers of Conway, but she said it was not the little black dog’s first gig. Bebe, a 6 1/2-year-old rescue dog, became a therapy dog about two years ago.

Desrochers said she never thought about Bebe being a therapy dog until she took her to a Conway Symphony Orchestra Concert in the Park and met a couple who owned a therapy dog. Desrochers said she had Bebe with her, and the couple suggested that Bebe was well-suited for the role. “Just her personality was so sweet,” Desrochers said.

She said Bebe took intermediate and advanced obedience classes, as well as Canine Good Citizen and agility classes before taking the test through Therapy Dogs International.

Desrochers, a lab instructor and stockroom manager in the Hendrix College Chemistry Department, has taken Bebe to nursing homes and to Hendrix and the University of Central Arkansas during finals week to help students handle their stress.

After a few minutes of meeting with the Conway Regional patients, Desrochers knew it was another good outreach for Bebe.

“This is going to be great; this is going to be really fun,” Desrochers said, as she held Bebe. “Those sweet little old people — it’s something to brighten their day, distract them a little bit, something different to pass the time.”

She and Bebe were in the Senior Behavioral Health unit to observe Debbie Brazzil of Greenbrier, who has been taking her daddy-and-daughter pair of poodles, Jackson and Paris, to visit patients there for three years.

Brazzil, whose toy poodles are also show dogs, said she had read about pet therapy; then she talked to a woman who came to her home to adopt a poodle puppy. The woman had a pet-therapy dog, and she and Brazzil talked about it.

“I had been trying to think of something for a long time that I could do as a community-service-type thing that I could do with my job that I would enjoy and they would enjoy,” Brazzil

said, referring to Jackson and Paris. Brazzil is a nurse at the Little Rock Allergy and Asthma Clinic. “I said, you know, I’m going to check this out.”

Jackson and Paris, at separate times, went through eight-week obedience classes to learn commands and were tested to be therapy dogs through Pet Partners and Therapy Dogs International. She said the dogs passed with flying colors.

Conway Regional Medical Center was willing to accommodate her work schedule, Brazzil said, which allows her to come to the hospital only on Saturdays.

Beshears said it would be nice to have a pet who could come on weekdays, too. In addition to the animals who visit the hospital being certified

pet-therapy dogs, Conway Regional Medical Center has its own requirements for the animals, she said. Beshears said anyone who would like more information about pet therapy at Conway Regional can contact her at (501) 450-2391.

“The good thing about therapy dogs, they can

be a mixed breed,” Brazzil said.

Tricks aren’t required, but Brazzil said she taught Jackson and Paris a few, in addition to what they learned in obedience class.

“Some of it is basic — sit, come — and the different types of what they call finishes, an obedience term,” Brazzil said.

The poodles’ tricks include commands to sit pretty, turn circles, wave or shake hands.

“You can say, ‘Paws up,’ and they’ll put their paws up on your arms,” she said. “Especially the one where I taught them to shake their hands, it’s really cute.”

Jackson is named after the late pop singer Michael Jackson.

Brazzil took Jackson in amid the patients, who were seated in recliners or at a table. She told the patients that like the iconic singer and dancer, Jackson can moonwalk.

“Let’s see it, then!” a patient called out, and she put down the magazine she was thumbing through to watch.

Jackson took several steps backward, and the patient laughed.

“I’ve got a granddaughter that’s got a dog that’ll bring her food bowl to you,” the woman told Brazzil.

Jackson turned circles next.

“Oh, that’s cute,” the same patient said with delight. “Don’t take nothing away from her,” she said, nodding toward Bebe. “She’s cute, too.”

Another female patient, who petted Bebe, told Desrochers and Beshears that she used to have a dog named Chewie.

Brazzil said that’s one of the points of bringing the dogs to the patients.

“The whole thing with the pet therapy is it’s supposed to get people to talk, and they’ll talk about their pets they used to have,” Brazzil said. “The ones who really like dogs, they’re very talkative. It’s supposed to help them not feel so lonely and supposed to do something with their blood pressure; it’s supposed to be relaxing.”

A male patient held one of Brazzil’s poodles in his lap.

“He knows a friend when he has one,” the man said.

After about 30 minutes, the dogs and their owners said goodbye to the patients.

“I hope I get to go home soon,” one of the patients said. She said she had a little dog waiting for her at home.

Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.

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