In recognition of National Dog Week I would like to honor the furry ‘physicians’ of our society – therapy dogs. Therapy dogs positively impact the quality of life for millions of children and adults. Via the unique human-animal bond, therapy dogs can ease physical and emotional pain beyond what traditional medical treatment and rehabilitation can do.
Therapy dogs are trained to provide affection and comfort to people in hospitals, rehabilitation and hospice centers, schools, nursing homes, retirement communities, homeless shelters, youth at-risk centers and families with emotionally or physically impaired individuals. Therapy dogs are not service dogs. Service dogs directly assist humans by performing tasks the individual cannot do on their own and are legally protected at the federal level by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Therapy dogs provide a calming influence, companionship, trust and unconditional love for individuals with the following conditions:
According to the 4 Paws For Ability organization, children with FASD, ADHD or autism experience sensory overload causing involuntary, repetitive movements or behaviors. Therapy dogs are trained to disrupt this behavior by cueing the child with a gentle nuzzle or putting their paw on the child. Some children require deep pressure to still an over stimulated regulatory system. Modern medicine uses weighted blankets but therapy dogs trained to lie on top of the child provide ‘contact comfort’ that medical equipment simply cannot provide.
Other documented benefits the organization has seen from the use of therapy dogs include improved social skills, an increase in the length of attention span, improved ability to focus, advancement in abstract and concrete thinking, improved self confidence, greater independence and empathy for others.
Even more amazing is a dog’s response to seizures. According to Right Health a dog can be trained to summon help, activate a medical alert device, pull potentially dangerous objects away from the person having a seizure and perform ‘blocking’ tasks. Blocking refers to the dog keeping the individual from walking into streets or other dangerous areas or the act of the dog cushioning the fall of the individual with his own body. The Epilepsy Foundation describes these highly trained dogs as ‘alarm systems’ as they have the ability to predict in advance when seizures will occur in someone they are close to. Once again, something that modern medicine cannot do with such accuracy.
Not just any Fido or Spot will do. Therapy dogs must be accredited through training and tested in the environments in which they will be working. While large dogs are more suited for service tasks like blocking for seizures or providing deep pressure to the over stimulated, ‘pet therapy’ or ‘animal assisted therapy’ are the terms used when other species like cats, rabbits, birds or other animals are used for comfort and companionship as rehabilitation for the abused, disabled, depressed or injured.
I agree with Roger Caras who said “Dogs are not your whole life, but they make your life whole”.
photo by: Ed Yourdon
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DISCLAIMER ALERT: The ideas expressed in this post came out of my own head, were researched by my own eyes and were expressed by my own hands. They are not intended to serve as medical advice in any way, shape or form. And they do not reflect the views of Humana Inc. or any of its subsidiaries. I take full responsibility if you think this post is awesome or not awesome.
If you’ve been following Crumpleitup at all, you’ll know we’ve had several discussions around the subject of obesity and the effects it can have on your health and healthcare costs. Approximately 30% of our population is considered to be clinically obese and the number is climbing. This obesity crisis is one of the primary things we are trying to address in the innovation center.
In our discussions I’ve noticed, we do a good job identifying the physical effects of obesity but not necessarily the intangible side effects. For some people obesity causes depression, poor self image, etc… My question is if you were to design a program to fight obesity, what would you do? What isn’t being addressed?
For this discussion let’s make the assumption that the program would be completely voluntary, much like HumanaBeginnings is to expectant mothers. I do ask that your suggestions be respectful. I don’t want to hear about putting people in camps, cages, or separate lines. Be sure to think on a grand scale; what changes would you make for a positive impact?
photo by: Wonderlane
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DISCLAIMER ALERT: The ideas expressed in this post came out of my own head, were researched by my own eyes and were expressed by my own hands. They are not intended to serve as medical advice in any way, shape or form. And they do not reflect the views of Humana Inc. or any of its subsidiaries. I take full responsibility if you think this post is awesome or not awesome.
Can your stairs play Chopin? There are some in Sweden that can. German Car Manufacturer Volkswagen recently created an artistic installation at a subway station in Stockholm designed to change people’s behaviors regarding the use of the staircase. They noticed that almost no one chose to walk up the stairs when the escalator was operating right next to it. At some point they decided that the only way they could engage people in the laborious task of walking up the stairs was to make it fun. Walking up regular stairs isn’t the most enjoyable thing in the world, but many people love to make music. So Volkswagen decided to see if they could combine the love of making music with the task of climbing stairs in order to motivate more people to elect to use the stairs. They call it “the theory of fun.”
When people found they could make piano noises by stepping on the stairs nearly 66% more people than normal chose to take the staircase rather than riding the escalator. The very entertaining video (embedded below) now has nearly two million views.
Volkswagen did two things really well here. First, they hit upon what we have been trying to do in the innovation center for years now: Create behavioral change geared towards living better by making fun things healthy. We’ve tried it with Horsepower Challenge, with Freewheelin, with the OPS challenge and our office prototypes, all very successful and ongoing initiatives with wide reach. Volkswagen seems to have done it too.
The second thing they did well was they made it easy to share the message of the fun theory. They made an enjoyable video about their creative effort, put it on YouTube and created a microsite called thefuntheory.com, where users can share the content they find and even enter a contest to win prizes for their own fun theory ideas. I would call their campaign a social media success.
It doesn’t stop with staircases for Volkswagen. They released a second video recently introducing a product aimed at stemming the tide of litter. They hacked a normal city garbage can to make an (almost) endless falling noise when you dropped something inside. It helped people imagine the bin was a bottomless trashcan, and Volkswagen captured some great footage of people hunting around for litter to put into the receptacle.
Finally, there is a teaser for a third product called the bottle bank arcade machine. The details are scant but I imagine they’ve found a way to make recycling even more fun than it already is. The lure of regular content is another social media plus on the Volkswagen scorecard. They already have over two thousand subscribers on YouTube.
All of their videos can be found on thefuntheory.com or their YouTube channel. Check it out. Maybe you’ll be inspired to take something good and make it even better.
Humana and Crumple It Up are in no way affiliated with Volkswagen or thefuntheory.com.
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DISCLAIMER ALERT: The ideas expressed in this post came out of my own head, were researched by my own eyes and were expressed by my own hands. They are not intended to serve as medical advice in any way, shape or form. And they do not reflect the views of Humana Inc. or any of its subsidiaries. I take full responsibility if you think this post is awesome or not awesome.
