Caregiver Support

Men's Support Group

3rd Wednesday of each month, 1p - 3p

Christ Our Savior Lutheran, 260 Wade Road W, Loudon, TN

Facilitated by Matt Noll, Owner, Home Instead Senior Care of Maryville

Worship Service

Held Quarterly on Wednesday at 4:30pm

Next Worship:  TBD

In Partnership with Community Church 

Our Place, 103 Cheeyo Way, Loudon, TN

Dogs and Hedgehogs and Wallabies, Oh My! 

Diane Strever for Our PLACE 

Now that I have your attention with this crazy title, welcome back to the Our PLACE monthly update! We are already making plans for our annual Walk 2 Remember & Car Show at Lenoir City Park on October 4th, from 9:30-12:30. Please mark it on your calendar. More information will be available next month, but in the meantime, please discuss with your friends and neighbors the possibility of forming teams to walk that day. 

This month, our focus is on another aspect of the program at Our PLACE, which involves animal therapy. Several times a month, volunteers or organizations bring animals to the site for our participants to interact with and learn. The benefits for those individuals with Alzheimer’s or dementia, as well as seniors in general, of engaging with animals are many. 

They can express their emotions as they interact with the animal in a meaningful way. Individuals derive a sense of comfort and security through tactile and sensory experiences, and engage in positive social behaviors such as smiling, laughing, and maintaining eye contact. Many people remember the pets they have owned, which stimulates both long-term and short-term memories.  Animals can help to counteract social withdrawal, apathy, and restlessness.  

So, who comes to see us? Shangri La Therapeutic Academy of Riding (STAR) in Lenoir City has visited with mini horses, and Creature Features from Athens has brought a variety of critters, to name a few: hedgehog, wallaby, porcupine, mountain coati (I had to look that up!), and parrot. 

Several times a month, different volunteers bring their dogs to visit and interact with our participants. One volunteer who comes every week is Lisa, who brings Lily, a Lab mix, to see her friends at Our PLACE. Lily is a trained therapy dog who started as a therapy dog at age 3; she is now 7. To earn her certification, Lily had to undergo approximately nine months of training, starting with basic obedience training and progressing through four levels to advanced training. After that Lily had to pass the AKC Good Citizen Test, which consists of ten qualifications: accepting a friendly stranger; sitting politely for petting; appearance and grooming; walking on a loose lead; walking through a crowd; sit and down on cue and stay in place; come when called; react to another dog; reaction to distraction; and supervised separation. Lily is one smart canine! 

A big THANK YOU to all of the volunteers who share their pets with us! 

Our PLACE is the only independent, nonprofit adult day center in East Tennessee. We provide person-centered care and dementia-specific therapies and interventions for adults while supporting their families and caregivers through respite, support groups, education, and resources, creating more “Moments of Joy” for these adults and their caregivers. For more information, call our Executive Director, Sarah Martin, at 865-657-7222 or visit www.ourplacetn.org 

Our PLACE participants look forward to weekly visits from Lisa and beautiful Lily (pictured below).