Animal Assisted Therapy Research Paper

The quasi-experimental study will be longitudinal and evaluative in nature, evaluating the effectiveness of AAI in persons with dementia over a span of three years. The researcher will seek to follow two hundred dementia patients over 65 over the course of three years, evaluating the impact of Animal-Assisted Intervention, in the form of fish aquariums, on their quality of life and mental state. Participants will be selected that are over 65 and have had a diagnosis of dementia for at least a year. Cluster sampling will be used to select patients from 10 Dallas Fort Worth area nursing homes or memory care facilities. Nursing homes and memory care facilities used in the study will be selected to represent a variety of socio-economic and

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.

North Florida Animal Hospital is a veterinary hospital located in Tallahassee, Florida. This practice was established in 1951 by Dr. Robert E. Lee. He had run this hospital until his death in 1988. Dr. George worked in the North Florida Animal Hospital upon his graduation in 1988 and purchased this practice at that time. Their veterinary services include immunization and wellness, dental care, digital radiology, internal medicine, surgery, pharmacy, and more. North Florida Animal Hospital is AHHA Accredited, The Standard of Veterinary Excellence.

Equine-assisted therapy. The use of equine-assisted therapy has been proposed as a method for facilitating positive sensory experiences for children with autism. A doctoral dissertation by Stickney (2010) finds that “the consistent, rhythmic movement of the horse as well as its warmth, appearance, smell, and furry coat sends an array of sensory signals to the central nervous system, affecting motor, visual, proprioceptive, tactile, and vestibular systems that are necessary for development of motor control” (p. 33). Preliminary research studies indicate that the experience of riding a horse can improve motor function, posture, balance, and reaction time. This can encourage positive sensory experiences, which causes the brain to release chemicals

Autistic children and even autistic adults often have meltdowns, outbursts, stress, and sometimes even as bad of symptoms as depression over the course of their life. Many parents with autistic children have tried multiple types of therapy, and often wonder if animal therapy would be a better path for their family. When trying assisted animal therapy for the first time, parents in every study I read about noticed that their child was calmer, more alert, and had an overall decrease in the amount of outbursts and meltdowns in a day. One family that was spoke about in the book Animal-assisted Interventions for Individuals with Autism, known as the Weiss family, had a very positive experience when they purchased their child a service animal. The

Survivors of sexual abuse may reach a point in their lives where they find they need assistance from a professional in order to overcome the trauma of their experiences. Assisted animal therapy has been shown to make the task of having to recount painful and traumatic experiences much less daunting. Having an animal present in therapy sessions greatly increases the survivor’s ability to heal in a less threatening manner. An animal provides sympathy and comfort that are physically expressed without overstepping the therapist’s professional boundaries.

The evidence based research that this article supports is specific to the diagnosis of adults living with dementia, while it looks at the effects of Animal – Assisted therapy intervention on the agitated behaviors and social interactions of this diagnosis. This article is written through the eyes of a CTRS whom is using this intervention study with nursing home residents from a therapeutic recreation perspective. With the large increase in our aging population we will also be seeing an increase in dementia-associated behaviors such as agitation. By finding non-traditional treatment interventions such as Animal Assisted therapy we are setting ourselves up for success at an early time. This evidence-based research was based on a pilot study of

The research proposal suggests that animal-assisted therapy (AAT) can be beneficial to those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Altschuler, 2018). expresses the information from the media is often much more detailed and less filtered than those of medical reports as they use these media stories as their resources for compiling the research proposal. The author expresses their concern for the cost and timeliness of a full-out research study and so they decided to conduct a research proposal to support their ideologies of the importance of AAT with PTSD treatment. Altschuler (2018) suggests that animals can be used to dramatically improve PTSD symptoms, potential benefit from AAT with multiple different animals, and that AAT

Many therapies are administered on patients with different health complications. These therapies seek to ease pain or completely heal the patients. Equestrian therapy is one of the therapies used to treat people with disabilities. It uses horses as agents to promote emotional health. The approach has become popular in the treatment of physical conditions, psychological, and psychosocial issues. However, the big question remains, what are some of the challenges associated with equestrian therapy? Do these challenges surpass its beneficial aspects? The paper herein will focus on the effectiveness of equine therapy, its benefits and the significant role it plays in emotional stability, social interactions, and physical functions.

The rationale for this study is developed through personal experience of the researcher at Baycrest and review of past and current research relating to this study. This study looks upon the effect of animal-assisted therapy (AAT) on the psychophysical well-being of elders in long term care. Specifically, it looks at the cortisol or “stress hormone” before and after exposure two types of occupational therapy conditions with the presence and absence of AAT. Elderly residents from Apotex

Over the years, animals have participated with great results in the treatment of the elderly and terminally ill. Now, Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) is benefitting people diagnosed with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) with promising results. Veterans are the most notable with it comes to PTSD. These men and women share a deep sense of fellowship and believe that no one but another fellow soldier can understand what they have experienced. Helping veterans who are suffering as a result of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder has mostly been through counseling, medication, and partnering with other military veterans for support. (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 2017) A large number of people have often have been exposed to animals at a young age through having pets, pictures in books, going to the zoo, television, classrooms, blankets, or clothing. Pairing animals with humans to treat any number of ailments is a new route many people are taking as part of their treatment plan. The resent use of Animal Assisted Therapy for people that suffer from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder has been on the rise in recent years to help with dealing with everyday life and recovery. Moreover, the healing process for PTSD has

Animal assisted therapy can be used with elderly residents in a long term care facility. Long Term Care Facilities (LTCFs) are facilities that provide 24-hour care by nursing staff for individuals who are no longer able to provide care for themselves. These facilities offer assistance with medication management, activities of daily living (e.g., bathing, dressing, toileting, meals) and any additional medical care required (Kendziorski & Treacy, 1999). Also referred to as: nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities, assisted living facilities. Many residents of long-term care facilities regard their former pets as having been members of the family (Savishinsky, 2010). Elderly residents of long-term care may not receive as much human touch and

There are many categories of hospitals and walk in hospitals are among those categories. These veterinarian clinics provide quick and emergency service to the clients. These are established by veterinarians who have just started their career and are passionate to gain a name for themselves. In usual cases these are not led by major medical institutions and are a reliable way to get a quick check-up from the veterinarians. There are some distinct advantages for such walk in animal hospitals like:

In order to be an effective counselor one has have sharp cognitive abilities as well as other personal characteristics. In the case of animal-assisted therapy, the ability of being deeply knowledgeable about animal behavior and an animal lover helps facilitate the therapeutic relationship. The therapist must also be open-minded, honest, respectful, and have a sincere interest in the welfare of others. They also have to be good listeners, empathic, maintain healthy boundaries and good ethics.

Animal-assisted therapy was created in 1792 to help patients in mental asylums to be able to interact with animals in peaceful environments and opportunities that otherwise they would not see. This was created by Dr. Levinson when he first saw a dog and boy that he had been treating interact with one another. This soon began to spread throughout the countries. It first arrived in the U.S. in 1944 through 1945 at a Hospital north of New York City, the hospital called Pawling army air force convalescent. The patients here interacted with farm animals such as horses and chickens. But with many things it took a long time before any data from places like this was collected. However it is becoming a more respected field among professionals ( Altschiller, D. 2011). It has been seen that pets can help calm people, lower blood pressure and they are great for people or children that cannot or do not relate well to other people. “Pets may help patients recover from acute illness--a study of patients following their discharge from the critical care unit found that 11 out of 39 patients without pets died within the subsequent year, compared with only three of 53 patients who had pets” (Floyd, et al. 2003).There are many animals that can be used in pet therapy but we are going to mainly focus on dogs and horses.