Aged care residents to keep pets

Elderly Australians who own animals suffer immense grief and anxiety over the inevitable separation from their companion.

While it remains common practice for residential facilities to refuse pets, the Animal Welfare League Australia (AWLA) is working hard to let them in.

Applications are now open for the AWLA Pets in Aged Care Grants program, which will deliver $10,000 to support pets in an aged care setting.

Facilities and individuals can win grants of up to $1000 to cover the costs of vet bills, dog walking and feeding.

Expensive practical modifications, such as cat flaps and fencing, have also been recommended.

AWLA executive officer Anne Boxhall said managing pets in aged care can be challenging, but is not impossible.

“Issues can be managed and it’s worth the effort because the lives and wellbeing of residents improve markedly,” Ms Boxhall said.

At Blue Care Kingscliff in the Gold Coast, the benefits of pet contact can be observed first hand.

“They had one female resident who was particularly distressed. The minute she had her cat back, she just settled,” Ms Boxhall

In the last 12 months Blue Care Kingscliff has welcomed four pets through its doors, with the help of local volunteers at Friends of the Pound.

The volunteers help out once a day to feed, clean and walk the pets so they can spend the majority of the day with their owners.

Blue Care Kingscliff manager Bernadette Lee said they also have visiting pets, but the special relationship people have with their own animal cannot be equalled.

“We’ve had people from as far away as Cairns wanting to come here because we take pets,” Ms Lee said.

She said the pet program has given residents a talking point, opening up new conversations and social opportunities.

“It’s lovely when you walk into our memory support unit and residents are sitting down together nursing the dog,” Ms Lee said.

“They don’t have to find a whole lot of words, so long as it makes sense between them and the dog.”

AWLA have been working with the aged care sector for the last 12 months to find successful models to keep pets and their owners together.

The organisation will share their findings, including details of Kingscliff’s volunteer-supported model, with the rest of the aged care community.

A comprehensive resource will be available on the AWLA website from late September.  

Image: Aged care resident, Doug with his beloved beagle, Honeybun. CONTRIBUTED.