Animal Assisted Therapy has many benefits which have been measured although more testing still needs to be done on them. The benefits of Animal Assisted Therapy are many. In addition, pet ownership is reported to be helpful in general. In 1980, evidence suggested that owners of animals experienced an increased year of survival over non-pet owners after being discharged from coronary Care Units. Further testing was done in 1988 by the National Institute of health who held a Technology Assessment workshop regarding how Animals benefited health. Dog ownership was later shown to have signs of lowering anxiety and providing human social support. These all helped in determining the survival rate after myocardial infarctions and indicated dog ownership was helpful. These all help in an assisted living as well. I have volunteered at several living care facilities and many of them had animals at the facility.
There is evidence that animals play a very good role in helping seniors feel better. When living alone, this is especially helpful. It improves life satisfaction for the pet owner. However it can also be a source of stress. Whereas it can impart confidence and assist the owner in feeling more self sufficient and doing more on their own, it can also be a source of anxiety. There are more smiles, laughs, looks, leans and touches from all kinds of different people and these all help in social situations. Fish tanks encourage better eating and improve morale.
According to CRC Health, being around animals have even more benefits. Interacting with pets improves fine motor skills, balance, focus, attention, self esteem and more. People learn to care more for them selves in some ways too. It reduces blood pressure, depression and heart attack and stroke risk. It imparts trust, empathy, teamwork, self control, problem solving and even reduce the need for medications. It improves social skills as well as releasing endorphins. It improves your health in general, especially cardiovascular health.
As for the studies behind them, its harder to track and those are the primary challenges to the project. It cannot be easily compared to alternative therapy, and individuals need to be paired with an appropriate animal. Animals have to be maintained. To some it may increase stress. When a pet is loss, there is grief and sometimes excessive grief. There is risk of disease and injury. There is also a possibility that there can be psychological dependence. There have also been examples of pet hoarding.
It can be more effectively assessed by studying social and psychological characteristics. Determining who is going to benefit is key to the assessment. There are instruments and inventions that can be used. There are also examples such as resident mascots and visiting animals and whether long term bonds are more effective. In children hospitals, having guest animals come may be the highlight of the day! I watched several videos where the children and parents seemed to think it was a blessing to have the animals come. The project is hard to assess as it is not necessarily goal oriented and cannot be evaluated clearly. It can be assessed with the appropriate methodology, but durations would have to vary. They may not be aware of patient treatments in all the studies, but that may also have an impact on the study.
SOURCE:
Crchealth.com CRC Health
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