practical living
Pep walks
Deb Whetstone interviewed
by Dallas Bastian Under the initiative, coordinators match
volunteers with suitable dogs that may not
be getting the exercise they need.
Volunteers spend at least one hour a
week with the pooch and in that time also
get to know the client. This provides older
people who may not be part of a social
group or receive any other support services
with an opportunity to interact with
someone new.
Aged Care Insite sat down with team
leader Deb Whetstone to find out how
the project got off the ground and
how easy it would be for other cities
to roll out.
T ACI: How did the project come
about? Why did the team feel it was
important to ensure older people
living in the community could maintain
the relationship they have with their
companion animals?
Volunteers are helping
to care for the dogs
of older people living
in the community.
he dog days aren’t over for older
residents of the City of Charles
Sturt. To support and assist them in
maintaining a relationship with their furry
friends, the city’s Community Care team
launched the Companion Animal Project.
The team said: “Pets have been shown
to greatly increase the quality of life for
older people by providing companionship,
comfort and social connections that result
in better physical and emotional health.
Therefore, making sure this relationship is
not lost because the older person is unable
to care for their pet any longer is the major
goal of the project.”
18 agedcareinsite.com.au
DW: The idea for this project initially
came after a student from Flinders
University, Mary-Rose Alfonsi, who was
doing a placement at the RSPCA and
working with Anglicare, realised that
there were many companion animal
programs running in residential facilities,
but there wasn’t a lot happening in the
community, and so she came to us
with the idea of setting one up here at
Charles Sturt.
The project involves sending
volunteers to help with the care of
pets. What sorts of things do the
volunteers do?
We focused initially on just walking
the animal and providing a bit of
companionship for the person they
were visiting as well. We have had some
instances where, in hot or wet weather, the
volunteer has just spent some time with the
pet, playing with them, brushing them and
doing a few tasks like that. We have tried to
make sure we don’t go too far into broad
care, as we don’t feel our volunteers would
be comfortable managing such things as
grooming and washing. At this stage, it’s
just walking.
Have you had much interest from
community members?
We have had a lot of interest, yes. Initially,
we sent out about 2500 surveys to the
owners of dogs registered in our region
and aged over 65, so we’re quite a large
council. We have nearly 20,000 people
aged over 65 living in our boundaries,
and we had about 300 of the surveys
returned. Not all people that returned the
surveys were interested in being part of the
project or volunteering, but they were all
keen to see it happen. There were lots of
really positive comments when the survey
first started.