Cuddle Care Support Program
What is cuddle therapy?
- Essentially, it is a form of therapy that is based on Attachment Theory, a concept that has been applied to children for many, many years to help them develop and build relationship skills, but it is still relatively new when applied to older adults.
- Cuddle therapy involves offering life-like baby dolls to adults who are living with dementia and other behavioral conditions, with the premise behind the doll therapy being to improve their quality of life and engagement, and offering them reassurance and comfort.
- It’s a relatively inexpensive, drug-free treatment with no side effects that is becoming popular amongst senior residents living in assisted care nursing homes, facilities with memory care patients, caregivers, as well as family members with loved ones suffering from conditions that are generally difficult to work with.
What evidence proves that cuddle therapy works?
The first article on doll therapy being used for dementia patients was published around 16 years ago. Since then, more than 30 globally conducted clinical studies and other research findings were published. Even though the effectiveness of cuddle therapy is still a new field being investigated, the results of all known studies are pretty promising based on the most common, yet significant outcomes, i.e.
DECREASE IN:
- Obsessions, aggression and anxiety;
- Use of anti-psychotic drugs;
- Negative verbal expressions;
- Agitation and wandering;
- Caregiver stress.
INCREASE IN:
- Compliance with personal care;
- Activity and happiness levels;
- Communication skills;
- Senses activation;
- Social interaction;
- Food intake and sleep quality.
Many caregivers witnessed the healing power of cuddle therapy and some described it as if it seem to transport seniors back to a time when they felt needed, capable, and useful, remembering their lives as loving caretakers and being responsible for others.
Are there any negatives?
Not many, but a few concerns were raised that should be brought to awareness, including:
- Moral or ethical discussions arguing that it is demeaning to treat an adult like a child;
- It can be perceived as going against maintaining someone’s dignity;
- A patient may become over-fatigued or exhausted trying to care for a doll;
- It is a very real possibility that a patient may lose their doll;
- In rare events, the patients may think their baby is dead.
What do we offer?
By Grace alone, Paula survived a brutal attack in her country of birth, South Africa, during a very violent home invasion and robbery incident in October 2009. This horrific event thrust her onto a long and painful recovery path that lead her to the amazing art of reborning. Knowing first-hand how these dolls helped her to heal and overcome extremely hard times herself, it wasn’t surprising to witness the profound effect they had on men, women, and children during our journey as an indoor retail vendor at the Hartville Marketplace.
As we became more aware of therapy research results and the increasing need for these dolls, we started exploring possibilities to bring a new ray of hope with therapy dolls, specifically aiming at reaching beyond our established reborn fans and doll collectors base. Without compromising on our quality, we developed our Cuddle Care Support Program through which we supply therapy dolls at a significantly low cost of $200 (USD) to healthcare facilities, memory care patients, seniors, or caregivers ONLY. Each doll consists of:
- A fully painted vinyl head;
- Painted hair;
- A soft cloth body and cloth limbs;
- Newborn length (20-21”);
- Realistically weighted (6-7 lbs);
- 3pc clothing outfit (disposable diaper, onesie, and soft baby blanket).
- Magnetic pacifiers are NOT included because the strong earth magnets used in them is known to interfere with pacemakers and other medical equipment.
How to order?
- Support Program orders are currently only accepted telephonically or via email to verify the qualifying criteria. Contact us to obtain an order form. We apologize for any inconvenience, but we are working on making online orders possible soon.
- Four or more dolls per single order qualify for an 10% bulk discount.
- Upon receipt of an order, we will issue an electronic invoice via our QuickBooks Business Payments system that can be easily paid with a debit or credit card. Alternatively, we also accept check and ACH payments.
- Free delivery is offered Stark, Summit and Portage County facilities only at this time. Deliveries outside these regions (within continental US) are shipped with USPS at an additional shipping cost of $20 per doll.
- Current estimated delivery time is 2-3 weeks, but time may vary on bulk orders.
Please feel free to reach out for more information, questions or inquiries.