Animal-assisted therapy
Introduction
Animal-assisted therapy (AAT) is a form of treatment used to treat patients with emotional and cognitive problems which affects social functioning. AAT is a treatment plan where the treatment provider ensures that the interaction of human and animal accomplishes specific goals. Animals which are commonly used are dog and cats, but other kinds of animals such as rabbits, fish, horses, and elephants have been used. Although people have not understood the real benefits of the Animal-assisted therapy, it has offered great assistance to patients including solving psychological and physical problems. Researchers have found that Animal-Assisted Activities (AAA) have improved the human wellbeing and more importantly in alleviating the mental issues. Various researchers and studies have found that animal-assisted interventions are associated with positive health outcomes. Through interaction, the person with psychological disorder decreases the anxiety level, enhances self-esteem, increases emotional awareness and reduces depression. A therapy animal provides a comfortable social conversation to a human being. Note that people with mental disorders are isolated and relationships weaken since people do not understand the social cues. In this case, animal therapy offers non-verbal cues and the person with the mental disorder is engaged in a positive environment. The paper will conduct a comprehensive research to find out where the relationship between animals and human is rooted and how the relationship improves the well-being especially on people with mental disorder. The paper will review the historical studies which provide credible information based on animal-assisted therapy and the strong rapport which improves the well-being.
Thesis: Animal-Assisted Therapy is the best treatment for people with mental disorder since unlike human beings, animals have a natural tendency to offer unconditional acceptance, create affection, interaction and a safe atmosphere.
The human-animal bond
Author Kalof (81) provides his thinking in the scholarly topic of animal studies and tries to examine the ‘animal question' which has gained a priority position in different areas such as in politics, ethics, animal-human relations and more. The animal studies started back in the 1970s and, the interdisciplinary field has rapidly grown where researchers show their interest in the areas of human-animal relations. In analyzing this particular area, Kalof starts by showing the human-animal relations by arguing that there is a strong bond that units human and animals and, the evidence is rooted back from archaeological and anthropological studies that show animal-human bond through the chronological account (Kalof, 81). Also, the archeological evidence presents animal-human relations from ancient times where humans were buried with animals. For instance, in the pre-Natufian cemetery, there is evidence of human-pet burials, dog-human burial in Germany and Israeli and cat-human burial in Mediterranean island. These shreds of evidence show that there is a unique relationship between animal and human and the relation provides positive interaction (Kalof, 81).
Given that there an archaeological and anthropological evidence of animal-human relations, the author connects the ties to therapeutic intervention and asserts that the bond between animal and human acts as a therapeutic intervention. Levinson, who was a psychologist, presented this evidence by showing that patients who were suffering from psychological and physical disabilities improved the condition whenever they interacted with his dog. The dog provided companionship and helped the patients and therapist build trust. Researchers at Ohio State University tested Levinson's ideas by establishing a ‘pet-facilitated psychotherapy' program. In the study (Corson study) the researchers selected 47 uncommunicative patients who were requested to care for the laboratory dogs (Kalof, 82). The researchers reported that all patients who interacted with dogs showed some improved and the researchers made a conclusion that animal-assisted therapy aids mentally ill patients in developing self-respect and self-confidence. In conducting the research, the dogs were social catalysts, and through interaction, patients experienced a non-threating condition that helped them break loneliness and social withdrawal (Kalof, 83).
Animal improves the mental illness of individuals by offering nonhuman social support. Theoretically, human beings need social support for them to develop a sense of belonging and improve physical and mental health. Researchers and studies have shown that supportive relationships increase the human survival by improving psychological well-being and protecting individuals from diseases such as cardiovascular illnesses, cancer, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and more (Kalof, 85). The mechanism by which the social support enhances health includes social buffering and hormones such as neuropeptide and arginine vasopressin which have a down-regulating effect and increases pleasurable social interaction. The purpose of touching the area of social support and the underlying mechanism is to show that animal-human bonds also have the similar underlying mechanism for providing social support and improving health. For example, some published studied showed that human-animal interaction increased plasma oxytocin- a hormone that decreases the stress responses. Thus, animal provides stress-buffering and social-buffering properties which provides mutual benefits (Kalof, 89).
Adverse effects of the human-animal bond
The author asserts that human-animal bonds contributes to negative effects which affect the individual, the society, the natural environment as well as the animals. For instance, dog bites cause physical and emotional damage and immeasurable cost to the victims, to the dog owner and the community. The national health protection agency in U.S reported that the total number of people bitten by dogs in every year add up to 4.5 million and 885, 000 require emergency treatment (Kalof, 88). Little children aged 10years and below are vulnerable to injuries and the bites are inflicted by pets which are kept for protection or entertainment. Animal-humans bonds also cause public-health risk since animals transmits zoonotic diseases which cause a public health threat. Pets also damages the environment. For example, the exotic animal trade, free-roaming cats, polluting the natural landscapes with animal waste and the use of farmland for the production of animal foods imposes an environmental burden. In case of a failure in the animal-human therapy, these animals are abandoned and mistreated. These adverse effects raises an ethical concern that people need to consider in animal-human relation and the theory in therapy (Kalof, 88). The author adds that the research community did not put interest on animal ethics but it concentrated on societal ethics. This become an issue of concern since animals have their rights and needs such as psychological needs, biological needs and pain control. The Animal Welfare Act brought a relevance concern on the ethics of animal research with an aim of protecting the human sensibilities (Kalof, 89).
Animal-Assisted Interventions
Kruger & Serpell (21) assert that the advent of scientific medicine disrupted the therapeutic setting where animals were used in the therapeutic intervention. However, in the 1960s, the writings of Levinson led to the re-emergence of animal-assisted therapy as he stated that his dog improved the health of children and teenagers who had mental problems. In defining animal-assisted therapy, the authors assert that there is a difference between the use of the animal for recreational activities and treatment of mental and emotions problems (Kruger & Serpell, 23). The article puts its clear by stating that animal-assisted therapy involves the treatment goals and objective, animal and health professional and measures progress directed toward each individual. On the other hand, the Animal-assisted activity does not include treatment goals, but it involves trained professional which assist the patient-animal interaction for recreational. The authors provide a theoretical framework that provides a mechanism of actions that show the therapeutic interaction between animal and humans (Kruger & Serpell, 24).
Intrinsic Attributes of Animals
Animals have inherent qualities such as pro-social behaviors that mediates interaction and improve physical and mental illness. This statement is supported by the biophilia hypothesis that states that human being tends to form an emotional bond with other forms of life. The author such as Melson supports this theory by saying that when a child interacts with animals, he cannot only experience unconditional love, but he can also gain new possibilities and caring sensitivity (Kruger & Serpell, 27). The statement is supported by the learning theory which states that pleasurable activities contribute to self-reinforcing behaviors and unpleasable actions will contribute to negative reinforcement and withdrawal behavior. The learning theory helps understand that animals in the therapeutic setting eliminate the anxiety-generating stimulus that may affect the patient and lead to withdrawing. When interaction with animals, the patients experiences a peaceful environment and gains self-monitored control (Kruger & Serpell, 29).
In a therapeutic setting, animals act as a catalyst and provide a rapport- building process. In other words, animals have social-facilitating effects which build rapport between patients and therapists. In the literature of AAI, it is found that when human beings interact with real fictional animals, they reveal their feelings to them (Kruger & Serpell, 22). This shows that pet not only increases social interaction but they also creates a meaningful interaction that leads to positive healthcare implications. For example, the presence of animal as a social mediator may create friendly and a less threating environment to the therapists and alter the perceptions of patients where both therapists and the patients will have positive social interaction and achieve positive treatment outcomes (Kruger & Serpell, 22).
Attachment theory
According to the attachment theory, there is a loving bond between animal-human relations and the relationship helps the patients and therapist achieve the goals and objective of the treatment. For instance, a human being needs social interaction which is reinforced by behaviors such as touching, smiling and more (Kruger & Serpell, 29). Animals are incorporated into the in the therapeutic setting to provide social attachment and positive therapeutic outcomes. The attachment theory is further supported by the ‘transitional object' which means that in a therapeutic setting, animals have transitional potential as they show intentional behaviors that develops patient's awareness and insight. It is also important to understand that animal as a transitional object provides strong attachments between therapists and patients in the therapeutic setting (Kruger & Serpell, 29).
Cognitive and social cognitive theories
Behavioral therapy in mental health disorders is used to help the patient change unhealthy behaviors. The authors assert that animal-assisted intervention helps them observe and learn the appropriate actions through social interaction (Kruger & Serpell, 32). Note that animals provide an immediate response to both pleasant and unpleasant stimulus thereby increase self-efficacy and personal agency. These theories also help understand that animal-assisted theory offers continued learning and behavior change after the intervention.
Role theory
Animal-assisted intervention assists in behavioral change and helps the clients set new behaviors or new roles that align with the code of norms. When interacting with animals, clients are provided with programs which help them assume roles such as being a teacher or any position that will help learn and change behavior (Kruger & Serpell, 33). Animal-human relation helps the client understand the duties, norms, and expectations and more importantly learns new skills.
Moretti et al. (125) assert that pet therapy offers immeasurable benefits to the patients with mental illness by improving their well-being. Animals act as co-therapists where they assist the patients in changing behaviors, gaining a sense of responsibility, reduces depression and increases social interaction. The authors conducted a study to investigate whether pet therapy improves the health of individuals suffering from psychiatric diseases by alleviating depressive symptoms and enhancing cognitive functions in elderly. Since elderly people suffer from cognitive and mood disorders, treatment based on emotional motivation works effectively in alleviating the problems (Moretti et al. 126). In the study, 25 elderly patients with depressive symptoms, trained physicians, and four dogs were included. Pet therapy intervention involved pet activities for 90 minutes in 6 weeks. Patients were required to interact with the dog by walking, talking and playing. The dogs were trained for pet therapy session, and they had interacted with other patients with mental illnesses before. After the study, it is was found that pet therapy alleviated the depressive symptoms by 50%. Patients also increased self-perceived quality due to the strong animal-human bond (Moretti et al. 126).The authors also explain the mechanism by which the bonds alleviate the depressive symptoms by stating that the bond causes the secretion of corticosteroid hormones which reduces the psychological stress that causes cardiovascular disease.
Work cited
Kalof, Linda. The Oxford Handbook of Animal Studies. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017. Print.
Kruger A. Katherine., & Serpell A. James. Animal-Assisted Interventions in Mental Health: Definitions and
Theoretical Foundations. Handbook on Animal-Assisted Therapy, 2006
Moretti Francesca, et al. Pet therapy in elderly patients with mental illness. Psychogeriatric 2011;
11:125-129
