EVENING TELEGRAPH (Derby, UK) 03 March 08 Thissss Won't Bite You! (Stuart Turner)
Deadly spiders, predatory snakes and other skin-crawling creatures have descended on a Derby nursing home to stimulate residents' senses.
BUPA Shelton Lock Residential and Nursing Home, in Weston Park Avenue, hosted an animal therapy session for its elderly residents.
They were encouraged to inspect and hold their guests, which included tarantulas and cockroaches.
Other exotic visitors included a corn snake, which is harmless to humans but eats mice, rodents and bats - usually squeezing its defenceless victims to death before eating them whole.
Activities co-ordinator Leanne Boddey, who helped organise the event, said: "To be honest, I was quite surprised -I was expecting a guinea pig. At first the residents were horrified but once they were talked through it they were more interested and really got into it."
The home's 30 residents chose to invite Falkirk-based Zoolab for the day after spotting one of its adverts.
Zoolab holds hands-on workshops in UK schools, care and nursing homes featuring animals including snakes, scorpions, lizards, frogs and insects.
Rats, gerbils, rabbits and guinea pigs are also included on their roster.
The one-hour sessions are overseen by company representatives and risk assessments are held to ensure animals do not escape, cause harm or distress on the visits.
Residents were able to touch and handle the animals and see them at close quarters - and it proved an eye-opening experience for some.
Ms Boddey said: "A lot of them hadn't got close to a toad, snake or a cockroach and I thought they would benefit from it.
"Because some of the residents don't have good eyesight they had put the creatures very close to their face. They were soon interested in seeing how the animals moved and having the opportunity to hold the creatures themselves."
Families of residents were also invited.
Nursing and residential manager Wendy Haydon said: "They were braver then me - I took one look at the snakes and walked out.
"In a care home they do not get the chance to touch things like this and without stimulation they could get depressed or isolated. So giving them the opportunity to interact with unusual things like this was wonderful."
Psychotherapist and hypnotherapist Margaret Slater, who runs a practice in Chapel Lane, Chaddesden, with partner Tony Hartwell, said activities like this could have invaluable effects on residents.
She said: "When we stroke animals we remember the stroking mums gave us as baby. Imagine that feeling of a cat on your lap purring - that movement can often be very soothing. As long as it is under supervised conditions, which I'm sure this was, anything that is different or stimulating like this will be appreciated."
http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=124378&command=displayContent&sourceNode=231734&home=yes&more_nodeId1=124522&contentPK=20042209
