This week is dementia awareness week!
In Addition to dementia awareness week, today is also national rescue dog day, so what a better opportunity to talk about therapies. Firstly, pet Therapy, the Lovely Alfie was a rescue, and thanks to his wonderful mum Julie he is living his best life as a therapy dog.
Alfie’s weekly visits to Kimbrose support our members but reducing stress and anxiety, improving mood and social interaction, but we don’t just stop at therapy dogs, at Kimbrose we have hosted many other fury friends and creatures,
So far this year we have been visited by Zoo lab who brought with them some very exotic friends, Stroud mini farms brought in some lambs for our members to bottle feed. Later in the year Walks with Hawks will be visiting and Stoud Mini-Farms will be coming back with some donkeys for our members to meet.
Pet therapies provide unconditional love and companionship they enhance cognitive function and give a holistic approach to care – pets’ therapies can significantly make a difference to the quality of life for people living with dementia.
We also support with many other therapies – Some of our members also benefit from doll therapy, they help bring a sense they are being useful and bring back happy memories of parenthood, interaction with our dolls can help calm our members nerves. We make sure with these types of therapies our members are supported well so they don’t feel overwhelmed with responsibility and the positive effects remain.
Some of our members also enjoy a hand massage and nail care, these one to one sensory interaction are a great way to really get to know our members, it often a chance for our members to reminisce about there past lives and this in turn helps us with developing activities and care plans for our members!
We are always on the look out for new ideas, so if there is anything you would like us to include, please get in touch.
