Llamas Bring Happiness to Nursing Home | National Geographic

if you had someone and you said let’s go
look at a llama the Balaam is coming in
the building oh my gosh when does a
llama come in the building as soon as
they see you Travis in the buildings
everybody just wants to touch him
repeatedly even when you come back and
forth they’ll pet up like five or six
times this breath is pretty potent but
that doesn’t stop him from kissing the
residents and you’re doing practice you
are beautiful there’s been studies
showing that there’s decreased agitation
and increase participation in therapy
with the use of animals there’s an
innate calmness to the animals which is
just immeasurable they don’t judge you
because you’re in a wheelchair or
because maybe you’re not sitting
straight or having some other issue so
we can get someone to stand and work on
their balance to reach up and pat the
llama a lot of facilities don’t have
animals and I don’t know if there’s fear
of the cleanliness or or what it is but
it is so easy to do not everyone can
have a llama in their front yard or
chickens but encouraging your workers or
families that visit to bring in their
animals is no cost and it’s nothing but
beneficial for the residents and it’s a
shame that more facilities don’t because
it is a wonderfully powerful experience
for the residents and the patients that
live in these
your favorite my favorite look at them
just because someone is in a skilled
nursing facility it doesn’t change who
they are actually like what’s going on
here and it can be such a gratifying
experience there is a high level of loss
at times and that’s hard there are days
that are really hard but the reason you
do it is because even if it is someone’s
last time you’re able to make it more
meaningful and sometimes that’s what you
take away and that’s what keeps you
going
you