We often hear how pets rescue lonely and withdrawn older people. Cats and dogs are given major credit for boosting vulnerable people's physical and psychological wellbeing.
They even have a special name: companion animals! Doctors and aged care homes are beginning to recognise the contributions that pets can make, including:
- Physical health: pets facilitate improvements in cardiovascular health, physical fitness, and the human immune system.
- Psychological health: pets assist practitioners during therapeutic work (animal-assisted therapy), which plays a role in child development and provides psychological health benefits.
- Social health: pets are social enablers that improved older Australians' social health.
Some years ago, Karen and Jamie Goullet took Sally, an old dog left at an animal shelter, into their acreage home in northern Brisbane. Sally now has a home for the rest of her life.
Karen says it is their calling: "That's what we were supposed to do, that was our purpose — that we were to look after senior dogs."
Doctors call it the 'pet effect'
Doctors call it the 'pet effect' and it is even part of General Practitioner (GP) care plans.
Companion animals can be helpful in practical ways for patients with weight problems, high blood pressure, susceptibility to stress and anxiety, loneliness, depression, and difficulty socialising.
The psychological benefits are high among vulnerable people such as children, the elderly, and the socially isolated, chronically ill or handicapped, but these benefits can be highly variable.
Recommendations to patients, which may be as simple as increasing the time spent with their pet (e.g. walking the dog), have the potential to become integrated into self-management plans for patients with chronic diseases.
Incorporating pets into these plans provides an individualised way for patients to be actively involved in their healthcare.
Karen and Jamie Goullet have now fostered more than 50 senior dogs, and their heart-warming story was on the Better Homes and Gardens TV program, as told by the inimitable Dr Harry.
They call their home a 'Sanctuary for Senior Dogs' and they provide a safe, permanent home for what they call golden oldies who have sadly ended up homeless at their most vulnerable age.
Some dogs have enjoyed life for years; others have lingered only a few weeks before passing on in peace.
"There are so many senior dogs in the shelters and rescues, even in the RSCPA, they constantly have old dogs," Karen said.
It seems people do not want senior dogs. They cost money, and most people want a puppy.
But like older people, senior dogs are amazing. Just ask Karen and Jamie!
"You get them fit and healthy, and they thrive. They become so young again."
Karen and Jamie provide a safe, permanent home for animals that end up homeless at their most vulnerable age.
Through word of mouth and animal shelters, Karen and Jamie are frequently contacted with requests to add another dog to their pack.
The dogs regularly wander in the paddocks - even Josie, a blind and deaf dog.
"People think blind and deaf dogs do not have a quality of life. They need to see Josie because she has the best nose in Brisbane," Karen said.
When Josie's time comes, she - like many before her - will slip peacefully away in Karen and Jamie's arms.
"Always the hard time is saying goodbye," Karen said.
"But it is the most important time — that we are with them when we say goodbye because that's when they need us the most.
"That is when they need us to be calm. We have the vet come to the house, they are on our bed, in our arms, and they know they are loved."
