HouseHold: Carehome and Animal Charity

HouseHold is a charity based around bringing animals into the care home system to improve health, reduce loneliness and inspire happiness within the care homes. Inspired by Dr Bill Thomas and his previous research and attempts to bring animals into the care home with the Eden Alternative, I researched the possibility of pet therapy and how this could improve the health of those within care homes. Similar to Dr Bill Thomas I wanted to eradicate the immediate hospital feeling of care homes and provide a more homely, lively and welcoming atmosphere that is more recognisable and familiar to those within the system. I found that the involvement of pets can have an extremely positive effect on care homes, reducing stress, encouraging communication and overall prolonging life as seen in Dr Bill Thomas' research. HouseHold will work as a weekly visiting system, bringing animals such as dogs and cats to care homes for a set period of time so the residents can interact with the animals, staff and families. Family members are encouraged to attend to hopefully improve family relations as it was found some family members struggle to keep their relationships as strong as they want. Currently, most services within this sector don’t seem to offer a lot of support for families who are struggling and need advice. The support that is already available can also be rather limiting in what they provide for the individual. HouseHold could allow for family members to bond with their family member as well as communicate with the staff and ask any questions building a healthy relationship between all parties involved. The name HouseHold was chosen as I wanted to find a charity that could provide the feeling of home to those within care homes. Another message was to suggest love and care and so a hug was a powerful image to suggest this, therefore 'hold' was chosen. HouseHold represents both the household and a home but also the idea of a hug in particular familiarity and family.