Small animals may seem weird to use in therapy, but they help in a different way. These “small animals” include rabbits, gerbils, hamsters, birds and even fish. You will see many of these animals used in the school classroom or a therapist’s room. They are easy to care for and no training is required. The rabbits, gerbils, and hamsters are great because they can be kept in a smaller cage. The birds need a bigger cage for room to fly and move around in, but they are still easy to care for and a great learning opportunity for the children. Fish, as we all know, must be kept in clean water in a fish bowl or tank. Small animals help to teach responsibility to young children, making them popular in the schools. Requirements are slim for these small …show more content…
Animal therapy is the same way. Depression can strike hard on anyone at any time. Veterans can be affected in different ways of depression (Chandler). Children of military families find comfort in a pet, for the pet will always be there to listen to their troubles (Rovner). As well as veterans, college students experience depression from the big changes and leaving family behind (Chandler). Having the animal there to comfort you or trust you can bring out the shine in someone’s eyes again. When life brings bad times into the lives of patients it’s hard to find motivation. Having an animal to take of or walk is a great way to increase their motivation to get out and exercise. For the elderly that are in homes, they are limited as to what they are allowed to do. When a dog is there to play with, a cat is there to cuddle, or a horse is needs to be groomed, the self-esteem of the patients increase greatly (Chandler). Self-esteem can decrease fast for anyone. That’s why animals are used in therapy, they can’t tell what age you are, what your disability is, or what you look like. Children that are neglected or abused are touched by pets because the pet will love them no matter what (Rovner). Patients that are undergoing chemo or have undergone chemo suffer from anxiety in many ways. Children under any treatments will be scared for life with anxiety. The sense of an animal there loving them or needing them to walk or groom gives the patient a light at the end of the tunnel (Chandler). A hospital is a stressful place for anyone of any age, animal therapy calms the nerves, whether it is in the waiting room or the recovery room. The small animals help with behavior problems for children in the schools and at home (Jones). Animal therapy is a huge help with developmental disorders and emotional disorders. People with developmental disorders will sometimes be ignored, an animal will never ignore them. The
Some medical professionals do not believe that mental health patients can benefit from therapy dogs and go as far as saying it is a risk far as to say that it is a to the patient and compromise the patients ability to take care of the dog. When people who suffer with mental health issues qualify to get a therapy dog. The mental health patient is tested to see if they are capable of taking care of the dog. Those in need of assistance should use therapy dogs frequently do to the part of the benefits to using these pets to improve mental and emotional health as and physical health. Therapy dogs are beneficial to people who suffer from mental health issues by providing companionship as well as support. Some people with mental health issues have a hard time trusting others and need someone to talk to; Service dogs are important because to make they people with mental health problems feel better and help people with these disorders deal with their emotions.
http://www.everydayhealth.com/alzheimers/how-animal-therapy-helps-dementia-patient s.asp Zimolag, Ulrike and Terry Krupa. “Pet Ownership as a Meaningful Community Occupation for People with Serious Mental Illness.” American Journal of Occupational Therapy 63.2
In the article “Therapy Dogs Work Miracles. But Do They Like There Job?” by Linda Lombardi. Linda shows that when sevices dog are not stressed out when they are working. Linda worked with many scientist and sciences clients. She worked with “Applied Animal Behaviour Sciences”, the Animal Behaviour did some reacher and found that dogs are not stressed out when they are working. They scientists state this “therapy dogs in pediatric cancer wards are not stressed by their work”(Lombardi). The scientist along with Linda show that dogs are not stressed out when they are working with kids. Dogs are probably not stressed when working with kids because they are active and are up and around with children. In the end of the article Linda states that
In 1961, Dr. Boris Levinson, a child psychologist, became the “accidental” pioneer for animal therapy. One day he left his dog, Jingles, alone with one of his young, uncommunicative patients. When Dr. Levinson came back, the child was smiling and talking to the dog (Altschiller 3). This just shows how quick and monumental the effect of an animal can be. He believed that therapy animals provided, “unconditional acceptance and love” and they offered “a secure and warm environment for children and other patients, increasing their ability to adapt better psychologically to other people”...
As the animals are being passed out, the patients begin smiling, laughing, and talking to the animals. They stroke their coats, play with them, and feed them snacks that they have saved for this occasion. While the patients are interacting with other students and staff, two of the students begin making notes on the activities that are taking place in the room. The patients, staff, and students are clearly enjoying themselves, but there are greater benefits to be found here. Research has been done in the area of human-animal companionship and security, and stress management.
In the field of therapy, there are numerous of therapy available out there for different type of individuals and situations as well. There is one type of therapy that usually contains people and animal, it is animal-assisted therapy is a therapeutic approach that brings animals and individuals with physical and/or emotional needs together to perform the therapy. Animal-assisted therapy tend to be focused on individuals either children or elderly for them to be able to connect with the animal thus feeling comfortable talking with the therapist. Pet therapy works for all ages, whether sick or not (Lanchnit, 2011). Although, this paper, most of the focus is on animal-assisted therapy towards children using dogs.
Due to pets having such a positive impact on overall health of people, animal assisted therapy (AAT) has been a growing field. Currently, Mayo Clinic has 28 certified therapy animals, on a volunteer basis, with the demand for AAT visits from physicians and patients increasing. To help grow the animal assisted therapy program, recruit more volunteers, and serve the patient’s needs first; we need to make the AAT program more well-known in the community. By expanding the AAT program and making it more robust, Mayo Clinic has the potential to set the standards for a quality AAT program in a hospital setting, but to also help patients have a more positive experience and a shorter stay while in the hospital.
AAT has been implemented in a variety of settings due to its numerous benefits. Other benefits include decreased heart rate (Friedmann, Katcher, Lynch &Thomas, 1980), blood pressure (Anderson, Reid, & Jennings, 1992), and depression while improving self-esteem (Walsh & Mertin, 1994). In children, the implementation and incorporation of animals in therapy is seen to be beneficial in social (Triebenbacher, 2000) and cognitive development (Melson, 2000). Goals of AAT include those that are physical, motivational, educational, and mental. Physical goals include the improvement of fine motor skills.
Benefits of Pet-assisted activity Animals can make excellent therapists. The benefits of comfort animals have been recognized for decades. In order to show the practicality of AAA, this session explains these benefits with analyzing its application in university. The presence of pet animals like dogs and cats can have anti-arousal physiological effects on college students. Furthermore, pet animals can act as a social support of students who have pets at home or have a strong affection to animals to deliver positive attitude and emotionally support them in a stressful time.
Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT), which can be provided in a group or individual settings, is designed to promote improvement in a human’s physical, social, emotional, or cognitive function. An article by Chitic, Rusu, and Szamoskozi (2012) provides an analysis in order to determine the value of AAT. Both dogs and horses that were trained for AAT were examined and studied to determine their effectiveness in treating patients with psychological disorders. The results showed that both therapy dogs and horses were valuable aids to the therapeutic process. The analysis suggests that proper training and repeated sessions were necessary for proper treatment of patients. In addition, certain disorders may benefit more than others in regards to AAT. For example, a child with ADHD may not benefit from a therapy dog’s presence, for it may worsen the hyperactive symptoms. On the other hand, a patient with depression may benefit greatly from the same animal (Chitic, Rusu, Szamoskozi, 2012). These findings are a perfect starting point to answering the research question: Do patients who engage in AAT display a betterment in their overall emotional well-being, as well as show improvement in their interpersonal interactions...
People with dogs are less likely to suffer from depression and anxiety disorders. Dogs are great social support for people with limited social interaction, such as someone who is incredibly busy with work or other activities. Many people talk to their dogs in a similar fashion to the way they talk to themselves. Daily struggles and frustrations are often vented to pets, which can serve as a release for these emotions. Having a confidant that not only provides unconditional love and positive energy, but serves as a frustration vent is incredibly valuable, and makes the moments of vulnerability easy.