Home > Publications Index > Bay Watch > Summer 2007 > VAMHCS Update

What’s Happening in Your VAMHCS Neighborhood?
Feathered Friends Enhance Quality of Life for Nursing Home Residents
By Margaret Hornberger

Joseph Taylor, a nursing home resident at the Baltimore VA Rehabilitation & Extended Care Center (BRECC), along with (left to right) Carla Carmichael, Chief, Recreation Therapy, VAMHCS, and Robyn Warnick, Clinical Pharmacist, BRECC, take a moment to enjoy some time with one of their feathered friends.

As a result of generous donations by community and veterans service organizations, the Baltimore VA Rehabilitation & Extended Care Center (BRECC) now has an aviary for the benefit of hospitalized veterans. The aviary, which is a large wooden bird house, allows veteran patients on the nursing home care units to enjoy watching and listening to a variety of different birds as a part of their rehabilitation process.

Carla Carmichael, Chief, Recreation Therapy, VAMHCS, says, “There are obvious therapeutic benefits as a result of interactions among nursing home residents at the BRECC who share a common interest in their new feathered friends.”

The aviary is just one component of the newly developed transformation of culture that provides nursing home residents with new avenues for personal growth and autonomy. The medical model of care for VA nursing homes is transforming to reflect a rehabilitative culture that provides a homelike environment for hospitalized veteran patients. In addition to increased socialization, the introduction of plants and animals helps to create a neighborhood setting that maintains and affirms the quality of living for nursing home residents.