To feel, touch and encounter gives warmth, colour and lustre to one’s existence.
People with special needs or functional limitations are continually touched but the contact is perfunctory and directed to the body region requiring care. Living with special needs/functional limitations has a different tempo. The need for touch increases as one’s health state worsens, particularly if they are no longer able to touch themselves. They are then unable to make contact with themselves and the outer world.
Pleasant touch and warmth activate the part of the nervous system that is responsible for a sense of calm, connection and a feeling of wellness. These effects are not always directly measurable but often observable in more relaxed body language, which lasts longer as the treatments are repeated.
