Exploring the Link Between Pet Care and Well-Being in Dementia Home Care Services
Incorporating pet care into dementia support can provide powerful emotional benefits and enhance overall quality of life
The importance of continuity and familiarity have long been cited as essential aspects in supporting adults living with dementia – but an award-winning home care team, Severn Vale Home Care, has reported how providing assistance with pets can have a more remarkable impact than many believe.
The company, which provides dedicated visiting, specialist and live-in care services across Worcester, Malvern and the surrounding areas, is a family-led business and offers the reassurance that furry friends are always welcome and properly cared for alongside their human owners.
Here the team clarifies some of the research that cements the need to incorporate pet care within dementia support planning and shares some insights into how this level of holistic, value-focused at-home help augments every aspect of professional dementia care.
How Do We Know That Pets Make a Difference for People With Dementia?
At Severn Vale Home Care, as with so many of our clients, pets are part of the family. Just a quick look through our introductions to our team shows you that many of us have a deep passion for dogs and horses. We also never overlook the important roles that Dougal Callister, Company Well-being Apprentice, and Mr Darcy, our beloved late colleague, play.
From a more serious perspective, however, pets can be a lifeline for those with dementia. They are a source of comfort and friendship, eliminate feelings of isolation and loneliness and ensure that an individual with dementia always maintains a touchpoint within their schedule that feels familiar, normal, safe, and full of joy.
Pets are also an increasingly common feature in rehabilitation, hospital settings and clinics, with a well-known ability to calm anxiety, prompt laughter and fun, and even act as a form of therapy.
Evidence Supporting the Importance of Continuity in Pet Ownership
While we wouldn’t necessarily advise that a person living with dementia who hasn’t always had pets welcome a new fluffy companion, there are reports from the Alzheimer’s Society that explore the place of animal-assisted interventions.
The organisation explains that leaving a pet behind, often when relocating into residential care, losing that connection and routine can be enormously distressing. It can also potentially mean a person with dementia is likely to see their cognition and recall decline faster or to a greater extent than it otherwise might.
Dementia can impact people in different ways, but for those with communication challenges, caring for a pet can limit disengagement. It provides a source of unconditional love and soothing reassurance that is hard for even the most compassionate loved one or care professional to replicate, while walking and grooming encourages healthy physical activity.
A clinical study found that participants who owned pets showed higher cognitive scoring compared to those without. It evidenced that sustained, supported pet ownership was quantifiably linked with higher abilities to recall words, both immediately and over the long term.
This research project concluded that owning a pet and being supported to keep them as a part of the individual’s home and everyday life could effectively mitigate cognitive disparities – a technical way of explaining something we have long known – people love their pets, and they can be vital to well-being, continuity and avoiding the unnecessary heartache of saying goodbye.
How Does Seven Vale Home Care Incorporate Pets Into Our Home-Based Support?
Our role as a team of passionate community care professionals is to offer the best support we can in the ways that matter most.
That might look and feel very different between two people or families, which is why care is always based on detailed planning so we can understand how to organise, structure and deliver the highest quality home care.
For many families, the prospect of giving up a pet, surrendering a furry family member to a shelter, or leaving them behind is profoundly emotional and distressing. However, with the right amount of assistance, it is often unnecessary.
Whether practicalities like helping a care recipient accompany their dog on a gentle walk, ensuring they add food, snacks and toys to their shopping lists, or having help to wash bedding on a regular basis, all of these tasks can be built into care planning.
The key focus is on providing reliable, dependable support from care professionals the person knows and trusts and ensuring they can continue with their favourite routines and pastimes, hobbies, and social groups as they always have, whether or not that involves a four-legged friend!
Advice for Families or Individuals Looking to Implement At-Home Dementia Care Involving Pets
Our guidance is simple: If you or a loved one has a pet and there are any concerns about whether they are able to continue caring for an animal, or complex decisions to make around their care, this should start with an open conversation where the person is encouraged to contribute as much as they are able.
Dementia care should be structured around helping the individual maintain the highest quality of life, and that means maintaining a consistent, familiar routine, being comfortable, safe and well cared for at home, and remaining in close contact with communities, families and friends.
As a family-run home care team led by Stuart Callister, himself an ambassador for Dementia UK, we recognise how challenging dementia can be. We provide fully personalised, respectful and compassionate care, with dialogues about pets, their needs, and how we can ensure both our care recipients, and their furry friends, stay together.
This is often the best of both worlds, removing worries about whether a person with dementia can look after a pet independently but giving the peace of mind that there is no reason we can't incorporate support with pets into our care delivery.
Read more about Severn Vale Home Care - Severn Vale Home Care Cements its Position as a Sector Leader With GHP Social Care Award
About Severn Vale Home Care
Severn Vale Home Care is a leading home care provider dedicated to delivering compassionate, personalised care services across the Worcester, Malvern and Hereford, and surrounding areas.
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