Hairless cat therapy proves beneficial to older adults

Fort Worth, TX

5/7/2010

By: Feliza Fenty, Schieffer School of Journalism

Visits from “Spencer” the hairless therapy cat brought smiles and comfort to many residents of the Wichita Falls Nursing Home in Wichita Falls, about 100 miles northwest of Fort Worth, in a project supervised by a TCU graduate nursing student.

Spencer is the name of the hairless sphinx cat that belongs to Kim Mercer, a nurse practitioner and TCU graduate student. In fall of 2009, Mercer decided to embark on a special journey along with Spencer that would change the way students saw cats and the way people handled life.

From mid-October to the last day of December, Mercer observed six people before and after Animal-Assisted Therapy. Her research applied to older adults in long-term care. Before Mercer took Spencer to the nursing home, she looked at closely at residents’ behavior. She examined whether or not people were interacting with one another, making eye contact with one another and how they felt before the animal visit and after the animal visit. Her results were astonishing, she said. “The responses were that they all felt better each time after they had contact with Spencer,” Mercer said.

She realized that even residents who displayed some anti-social behaviors would soon seek amity, because of Spencer. “There were some participants who, either by choice or for whatever reason did not want to socialize with others and did not want to even come out of their rooms, suddenly became much more social and left their rooms,” Mercer said. “They wanted to talk to others, and they wanted to talk about the cat.”

So she did this three nights a week for about three months. “He (Spencer) would either sit in their lap or crawl on their bed with them so that they could hold, hug and love him.”

Spencer is registered with the Delta Society as a therapy cat. Mercer chose him because he is a hairless cat, which minimizes the possibility of allergic responses. “I think the sheer appearance of him and the feel of his skin is pretty intriguing. He is warm and his skin is like velvet,” Mercer said. “Mostly, he is unusual which is what they like about him.”

Kim Mercer is a graduate student in the Doctor of Nursing Program at TCU. For more information, please contact Professor Kathy Baker at the Harris College of Nursing & Health Sciences or e-mail kathy.baker@tcu.edu.