When animals help humans heal

Sometimes animals are much more than devoted companions. They can truly help people heal and feel good. This section tells you more.
It seems that human beings are caring by nature. We shine and grow when we have someone to love and care for. Usually, we defer our affection to our family and friends, but animals are easily integrated into the group of our intimates. We like to look after our pets, and when we're in trouble we often turn to them for reassurance and comfort.
Because of our affection for them, animals have often been used to help us heal. It is said that, in the past, when people felt they were losing their minds, they surrounded themselves with dogs.
Tea merchant William Tuke was so shocked by the cruel methods of lunatic asylums in late 18th-century England, that he founded the pioneering York Retreat to treat the mentally ill with greater kindness and compassion. One of his clever new treatments was to give patients rabbits and fowl to look after and care for, thus making them responsible for their own care. York Retreat pioneered the intensive use of animals to facilitate therapy, and this method continues to this day.

Progress in pet therapy

Since the 1980s in particular, many advances have been made in the knowledge of pet therapy, and it has become a professional discipline. It is divided into 2 main branches:
1-Animal assisted therapy
The aim of animal-assisted therapy (AAT) is to work with animals following a fixed program to intensify desirable behaviors in people, or to attenuate undesirable ones.
Take, for example, the case of a highly disturbed 3-year-old boy who refused to learn to walk and talk. He did not respond to the usual rewards of toys, music, food or juice.
However, it was discovered that the encouragement and interest aroused by a small parakeet was enough to prompt him to start talking. His first word was “bird”.
He then learned to walk with the help of a trained dog. The progressive therapy program culminated in the eleventh session. The little boy took his first two steps - towards the dog. By the end of this session, he had walked two meters so that he could pet the therapy dog.
2-Animal-assisted activities
The other main branch of the therapeutic use of pets is called “Animal-assisted activities”. Its aim is not to change a particular behavior, but to improve the quality of life.

Institutions

People living in institutions, such as group homes and clinics, feel they are in artificial homes, where daily life is highly controlled. This can lead to feelings of depression and isolation.
However, when animals join them, it seems that both staff and patients benefit. They get a chance to play, make friends and cuddle. In 1992, around 70% of hospices in the UK and Ireland surveyed said they had live-in pets.
In institutions where it is not possible to accommodate pets on a permanent basis, such as hospitals, pet-visiting programs have often been developed. Volunteers regularly bring in their pets, which can bring a great deal of pleasure to people who are bedridden and ill. Pets are selected to ensure that they are healthy and well-behaved.

Passive use of pets

Perhaps the best-known passive use of pets is the aquarium or small caged birds found in doctors' and dentists' waiting rooms, workplaces or group homes. Patients do not care for the animals, but enjoy their mere presence in the room.