Your best friend could be your best medicine

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 6, Issue 283, 18 April 1989, Page 9

Your best friend could be your best medicine

When you're feeling low or want to talk over your troubles, who do you turn to? If you're a pet owner, your first choice may very well be your furred or feathered companion.

Most of us feel very much better for being with and talking to our pets, and this benefit isn't just imaginary. More and more doctors, therapists and social workers are confirming with scientific data what pet owners knew years ago: pets are good for you. In New Zealand, as in many other countries, pets play an even wider role than providing their owners with com-

panionship, and are used in the increasing number of pet therapy programmes that are being developed. Those benefiting from such programmes include the physically, emotionally or mentally handicapped, and the elderly. The idea of using pets to help people is not new. Neither is the idea of pet therapy programmes, for pets were first used in therapy with injured soldiers

during World War II. But it was not until about ten years ago that the concept became widely accepted. Because New Zealanders have such a high proportion of pets in their homes already, pet therapy has enormous potential. Therapists have discovered that pets can help bridge barriers that may hinder children with development problems. In some cases the first link in communication between a therapist and an uncommunicative, introverted child has come when the child talked to a pet. The elderly, too, may benefit. For those living alone pets provide a focus for interaction, and for those bedridden a pet visitation programme can provide the highlight of the week. The list of benefits from keeping pets or pet therapy grows all the time. People can be helped through times of bereavement or depression, and given relief from stress. Pet dogs have been found to sig-

nificantly reduce heart rates in certain patients prone to heart attack. Pet owners accept the benefits almost without realising what they are. Pets provide us with much needed companionship, help to reduce the stress in daily life and act as an important method of communication between members of the family, neighbours or even strangers.