Pet Therapy Definition and Patient Education
It is often used for mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, grief, and post-traumatic stress disorder, but can also be used for physical conditions and the emotional component of physical disease. Animal-assisted therapy provides children and adolescents with emotional support, plus reduces anxiety and enhances social skills. Interacting with therapy animals can help young individuals develop empathy, communication skills and confidence. This approach is particularly beneficial for those with developmental disorders because it offers a nonjudgmental and engaging therapeutic experience. Animal-assisted therapy, also known as animal-assisted interventions or AAT therapy, is gaining recognition across healthcare, education and community support services.
How long is a typical animal-assisted therapy session?
- The researchers note that the therapy may be beneficial for people from many different age groups with various conditions.
- Since pet therapy animals don’t need task-specific training the way service animals do, there are more kinds of animals that can participate.
- On the other hand, the qualitative research included in the review exhibited higher overall quality and contributed valuable insights to our findings.
- A number of organizations train handlers and connect them to healthcare providers.
- Each animal is selected based on the therapeutic needs of either an individual or a group, thus creating a more tailor-made approach to treatment.
People of any age can see benefits from interacting with animals in a psychotherapy setting. Young children often see dramatic improvements in interpersonal relationships with equine-assisted therapy. For example, young children who are unable to express physical and emotional comfort and closeness with others, or find it difficult to do so, may more readily form that type of bond with a horse or other animal.
Animal-assisted therapy is often integrated into group sessions for teamwork, trust, and empathy. Discussing these particular methods of animal-assisted therapy will help clients discover the most appropriate applicable techniques for their therapeutic journey. Clients can observe the behaviour of animals and reflect on their interactions, gaining insight into their emotional lives and one another in the process.
The Benefits of Animal-Assisted Therapy: How Animals Help Improve Health and Well-Being
- It can be used to help people with a wide range of challenges, from helping to build communication skills in autistic children to managing grief, loss, and stress in older adults.
- Playing or stroking animals, or even watching them can lower the levels of cortisol and increase the production of serotonin, making us less stressed and happier.
- The broad category of animal-assisted interventions includes animal-assisted therapy (AAT), animal-assisted education (AAE), and animal-assisted activities (AAA).
- Explore the Bachelor of Science in Animal-Assisted Therapy at Husson University, which covers how to leverage domestic animals to improve human lives.
- These interventions often involve collaborative activities between human-animal teams, aiming to promote therapeutic and supportive outcomes 7.
These positive experiences may make clients more at ease and receptive to therapy. A 2015 study linked therapeutic time with animals to reduced pain levels after surgery. Children hospitalized for cancer treatment also experienced reduced levels of the stress hormone cortisol, thanks to time spent in animal-assisted therapy. Playing or stroking animals, or even watching them can lower the levels of cortisol and increase the production of serotonin, making us less stressed and happier. Pet therapy for depression treatment and addressing trauma, social anxiety and isolation, and chronic self-harm are in practice. Standard health insurance plans in the United States do not typically cover animal-assisted therapy.
Research has found that patients with therapy animals visit their doctors less for pain and anxiety, hence faster recovery. While unlikely to be harmful, they may or may not produce desired therapeutic benefits and should be further researched to determine their long-term effects. Others, such as equine therapy, have a wealth of research supporting their positive impact on recipients’ mental health. Eligibility for animal-assisted therapy depends on your condition, your insurance coverage or other support for therapy, and connecting with an available program.
How Can Animal-Assisted Therapies Help?
Requirements for animals depend on the facility or location, as therapy dogs do not have the same legal status as service dogs. Some requirements may include training certification, registration, insurance, or vaccination. Examples include equine therapy for kids with anxiety and canine therapy for childhood trauma. The benefits of pet therapy for seniors also include increased opportunities for exercise as well as socializing and outdoor activities. This, in turn, helps them achieve better cognitive function—thereby reducing their vulnerability to cognitive impairment and memory disorders (such as dementia).
The Benefits of Therapy Animals in Mental Health Treatment
The mental health benefits of animal-assisted therapy for kids go even further. Service animals are trained to perform specific tasks for people with conditions that are challenging to manage. Service dogs can be a huge gift in helping these folks live functional lives, says Teresa Lodato, a certified professional co-active coach out of Alamo, California.
Healthcare providers assess each case to determine if AAT is appropriate and beneficial. Farm animal-assisted therapy incorporates animals like cows, goats and chickens to provide emotional support through structured tasks. Activities like feeding and grooming can boost coping skills, self-efficacy and mental health, particularly for individuals with psychiatric conditions. Animal therapy involves regular sessions with professionally trained animals and their handlers. A review study notes that animal therapy appears to provide general benefits for both physical and psychological health.
The findings of the study suggest that AAT fosters a healing environment for patients, incorporating a holistic and humanistic approach that elicits overwhelmingly positive responses. Among the studies that focused on neurological disorders, 3 used dog therapy as an intervention. One of these studies used a randomized controlled design 26, while the other 2 studies used purposive sampling based on the patients’ conditions. One study specifically targeted children and adolescents with autism, while the other 2 studies focused on older patients with Alzheimer disease. In terms of the duration of the interventions, the 7 studies had varying time periods per visit 5,24,25,27,28,31,32.
From dogs to farm animals, AAT therapy provides meaningful support across healthcare, education and community settings. Interacting with therapy animals has been shown to lower stress hormones and reduce anxiety. This calming effect supports emotional stability and helps individuals feel more at ease during medical treatments or therapy sessions. Canine-assisted therapy uses trained dogs to support individuals with physical, emotional or cognitive challenges. These dogs offer comfort, reduce anxiety and promote social interaction in hospitals, schools and rehab centers, helping patients engage more fully in therapy. Animal therapy or pet therapy refers to the use of animals as a way to help people cope with and recover from some physical and mental health conditions.
What are the benefits of pet therapy?
Animal therapy builds on a concept called the human-animal bond, which describes people’s desire to interact with and relate to animals. For many people, by interacting with a friendly animal, they can form a bond with them. Animals may be able to provide comfort, alert others if someone is in danger, or even perform direct actions to help a person’s condition when they are in need. Animals that might serve in a therapy capacity include, but are not limited to horses, dogs, dolphins, fish, birds, and small pet rodents such as rats or hamsters. Individuals who perceive hostility or disregard from other humans may come to accept the nonjudgmental and unconditional affection and attention from an animal, instead. Studies of AAT demonstrate these results in nearly all participants, regardless of age, the duration of the session, or the severity of symptoms.
They have become our loyal companions, developing unique social skills for interacting with humans 12. Furthermore, dogs are capable of forming intricate attachment relationships with humans, resembling the bonds found in relationships between infants and caregivers 16. Research suggests that among the various animals involved in AAT, dogs tend to exhibit superior interactions with people compared to other species, benefiting both children and adults 6. Animal-assisted therapy programs in educational settings have been shown to enhance overall well-being among students by reducing stress and anxiety.
The search process resulted in 968 unique articles after initial searches from various electronic databases like PubMed, Web of Science, Science Direct, and Google Scholar, which yielded 942 articles. After eliminating duplicate articles, the total number of articles was reduced to 507. Subsequently, Animal Therapy Benefits the articles were assessed based on their title and abstract to determine eligibility. Among the initial pool, 389 articles were excluded as they did not meet the eligibility criteria, mainly due to the lack of relevance to AAT. After reading the full text of the remaining articles, 102 more articles were excluded. Of these 102 articles, 60 did not meet the inclusion criteria, and 42 were excluded due to being classified as nonoccupational mixed groups or having unrepresentative results.
