Pawsitive Living!

Hello everyone,

So, this week, I got the opportunity to go to Glenwood Autism and Behavioral Health Services this past Thursday. This was part of the Pawsitive Living program at Hand In Paw. It is a 12-week, curriculum based program serving at-risk youth (group of 7-9 year old boys with behavioral problems). That Thursday marked the half-way point (week 6) of the 12-week program. Although this was my first visit and I had not witnessed where the boys were behavior wise when the visits first started, the responses that were given Thursday night by the boys seemed like improvements were definitely being made in the boys' behavior as well as their perspectives on certain situations. As the boys entered the room, it was obvious that a strong bond had already been established between them and the therapy teams. It never ceases to amaze me the look of pure joy that takes over upon laying eyes on the therapy animals. I have seen for myself on multiple occasions the way these animals and their handlers make a difference in people's lives.

The topic for the night was stereotyping. After going around the room and each of us saying something that someone called us that we didn't like, the boys were given a picture of a cat. The task was to write down things inside the cat that they could control, such as their feelings and emotions, and write down things outside the cat that they couldn't control, such as other people's actions. The portion of the night that the boys really seemed to enjoy was when they were given stickers with adjectives like ugly, cute, slow, fast, clumsy,etc. and their job was to go around and label the therapy dogs according to what they thought. What we found was that the boys had a really hard time putting bad labels on the dogs, such as ugly. The underlying message in this activity was that just because people may label you with bad words, this does not mean that those words define you. What a great way to convey a message!

Also, Thursday night was the first night that I went to a facility that had more than one team. There was a total of 7 teams in all. One thing that I would like to point out is the way in which the teams interacted with each other. They all acted like family...all of them unified under a common ground: helping others with their furry friends. As far as my infection control rubric, all of the teams carried out infection control as appropriate for the situation. I got to talk to two therapy teams, Carrie and Spice and Carol and Hannah, about their views of infection control. I did not get the chance to ask all of the questions that I would have liked to ask due to time constraints; however, I made sure I asked what Carrie and Carol believed were weaknesses. Both teams believed that proper hand washing was definitely a weakness, and Carrie also added that if developed, she would definitely be willing to attend a short focus-based infection class on that subject. Hopefully the next visit, I will be able to get more in depth infection control information and continue to accumulate valuable responses from the teams. Stay tuned..... {pictures below}

Some of the therapy teams

                                                                   

Carrie and Spice (poodle)

Carol and Hannah