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Mary Esch
Jeff Philipson, 80, left, exclaims as therapeutic activities staff member Kate DelPizzo arrives for a visit with Zeus, a bichon frise, at The Hebrew Home at Riverdale in New York, Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2020. New dog recruits are helping to expand the nursing home s pet therapy program, giving residents and staff physical comfort while human visitors are still restricted because of the pandemic.
Image Credit: (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) December 22, 2020 - 6:30 AM Eileen Nagle sees her family in video chats and drive-by visits, but that hasn t made up for the lack of warm hugs in the nine months since the pandemic led her nursing home to shut its doors to visitors.
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Dogs come to the rescue, easing nursing home loneliness caused by COVID-19
Updated Dec 22, 2020;
Posted Dec 22, 2020
Jeff Philipson, 80, left, exclaims as therapeutic activities staff member Kate DelPizzo arrives for a visit with Zeus, a bichon frise, at The Hebrew Home at Riverdale, Bronx, N.Y., Dec. 9, 2020. The program gives residents and staff physical comfort while human visitors are still restricted because of the pandemic. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
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Eileen Nagle’s situation, unfortunately, isn’t unusual. She resides at The Hebrew Home at Riverdale in the Bronx, and her life just as others living in nursing homes throughout the nation has changed since the coronavirus pandemic took hold almost 10 months ago. It’s a life of isolation.
Associated Press
Eileen Nagle sees her family in video chats and drive-by visits, but that hasn’t made up for the lack of warm hugs in the nine months since the pandemic led her nursing home to shut its doors to visitors.
Enter Zeus.
“Zeus is a friendly little snowball, very happy,” said Nagle, 79, after the peppy bichon frise paid a visit to her room at Hebrew Home at Riverdale, overlooking the Hudson River in the Bronx. “Petting and playing with the dogs breaks up the day and gets you to forget about yourself for a while.”
Hebrew Home has had a pet therapy program for 20 years; tiny Zeus and gentle giant Marley the Great Dane are the current snugglers in residence. Now, the activities department is expanding the canine corps with two new recruits in training to give residents more of the affectionate physical contact that has become so scarce and precious in the coronavirus era.