There were some adorable reactions from patients when Peanut and Wizzle from Dartmoor Carriages visited our specialist dementia ward Edgcumbe on the Mount Gould site.
Ward Manager Fleur Varney who arranged the visit said: “The benefits for our patients are that communication can be really challenging for them as they are at different stages with their dementia journey. By bringing in these ponies, there is a lot of stimulation without it being too much of a noisy environment, so they are able to connect without the need for verbal communication.
“Just because someone has a diagnosis of dementia doesn’t mean they want to do the same things day in, day out. We work really closely with our Occupational Therapists on the ward to try and ensure that we have different activities going on.
“Quite often they can find it difficult to be interactive with staff and other patients, so it has just been really lovely to see people communicating in their own ways.”
