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NEWS BRIEFS
Hospice offers pet therapy program
Ilona Bulen poses for a photo with her dog, Pearl, on Tuesday, April 13, 2010, at Huntington Health and Rehab. The two spend time visiting patients at area rehab, hospice and nursing homes for pet therapy.
Purchase this photoHUNTINGTON -- Everyone knows Pearl is the best kisser at Huntington Health and Rehab, even if the kisses are a little sloppy.
That's because Pearl is a 120-pound Great Pyrenees/Labrador Retriever mix. She works as an extension of the pet handler program at Hospice of Huntington, visiting patients at facilities like Huntington Health and Rehab and others around the community.
"It takes me probably 20 minutes just to get from the front door to whatever patient's room we're assigned to visit that day," said Pearl's owner, Ilona Bulen, who first started visiting patients five years ago with retriever "Chinook," who has since retired for health reasons. "People immediately reach out for her. It becomes quite a social event."
Bulen, whose husband is in the military, has relocated every three to four years, volunteering all along with way with pet therapy programs, wild animal rescue groups and at the University of Florida's equine neo-natal intensive care center. She's been in the Tri-State for seven years and has been sharing her pets with Alzheimer's, dementia and critically-ill patients the majority of her time here.
"I went through the hospice training, Chinook was tested and just charmed everyone and the rest was history," she said. "When you're with patients, the dog does all the work and you're virtually invisible on the end of the leash."
During a typical visit, Bulen said patients will reach out for the dog, snuggle and perhaps invite the dog onto the bed. She said the presence of the animal has launched hundreds of conversations about people's memories of their own pets.
"Being there with Pearl brings up memories of people with their own pets," she said. "I can't explain how different the atmosphere becomes when a dog enters it. People are just more focused in the moment. They take time to relax and interact. It's therapeutic for everybody."
Leanne Taylor, director of activities at Huntington Health and Rehab, said that pets in a hospice or rehab setting bring smiles to patients who might otherwise be withdrawn.
"It's a wonderful memory trigger for them and opens such an outlet of conversation. You see the smiles and they start telling you stories," she said. "It brings back memories of good things, of pets and children and the happy times in our lives."
Bulen has many touching stories of her visits to area facilities, including one man who was able to "walk" Chinook through the corridors from his wheelchair, a couple she helped celebrate a 49th wedding anniversary with by taking them outdoors and watching the sun set over Harris Riverfront Park. That man passed way less than a month later.
"It kind of reminds me of 'Tuesdays With Morrie.' I never expected I could learn so much from people walking that final journey in life," said Bulen, who has worked with two dozen patients since she began serving in 2005. "A lot of these people have gotten to the stage where they've shut down emotionally or physically and there's something magical about a dog that helps them be able to open back up a little."
Lisa Floyd, director of volunteer services at Hospice, said assignments for pet visits come at the request of family members. Taylor said even family members are welcome to bring pets in to the facility so long as a current shot record is on file.
"It's just amazing to see the joy animals can bring, almost miraculous really," Floyd explained. "Animals really can reach a part of someone's long-term memory."
Taylor said she has watched first-hand the number of people who have been transformed, albeit for a short while, by the presence of the animals in her facility.
"It makes a difference. I watch them go from being sad and depressed, focused on the gloom and doom, to what seems like a completely different person," she said.
Bulen said she is pleased to share Pearl and her other pets with the elderly and feeble.
"I know that dogs benefit from a lot of social interaction and the kind of dogs that I have are breeds that are really, really social. They couldn't possibly get all the loving they need at home," she said. "But, through this, they don't even realize they're giving just as much love in return."
