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Studies have shown that petting animals can reduce
blood pressure and lower stress levels in some patients.
One study has shown improved recovery rates for cardiac
patients who have pets at home. Depressive, psychotic
and demented patients have shown considerably less anxiety
when dogs are present at therapy sessions.
Program coordinators, handlers and researchers distinguish
between animal-assisted activities-visits to entertain
or distract patients or residents in a health care facility-and
animal-assisted therapy, in which a health care professional
uses an animal to achieve a specific goal, like getting
a patient to walk, throw a ball, talk to a therapist
or socialize with other people.
An important part of successful physical therapy is
motivation, researchers and therapists say. Jankowski
said she has seen patients who wouldn't take a step
for a therapist walk down the hall in a walker with
a dog.
"If it were me, I'd rather go home and pet my
dog than work on a biofeedback machine," said Mara
Baun, DMSc, FAAN, assistant professor of nursing at
the University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center.
Baun has authored a number of studies on the benefits
of animal visits and therapies.
Some of her studies looked at children who received
a routine examination by a nurse practitioner. Those
who had the examination with a dog next to them at the
examining table showed considerably fewer signs of stress.
In other work, Baun has focused on nursing homes, perhaps
the most popular places for animal visits because rules
about infection and disease control are not as stringent
as in hospitals. Baun found that Alzheimer's patients
were more socially interactive and less agitated with
a dog present.
But Baun said she does not know if the mental benefits
would continue once residents became accustomed to having
the animals around. "Certainly in the short term,
the effects are positive," Baun said, "but
we really need to know what the long-term effects are."
Mental health practitioners also have used animal therapy
successfully. Linda Porter, MSN, MA, RN, assistant professor
in the department of chronic care nursing at the University
of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, teaches
classes in animal-assisted therapy at the school of
nursing and uses animals in her work as a private practice
psychotherapist.
Clients lie on the floor and hug her golden retrievers
or walk in the park with her and the dogs, then sit
on a log and talk. Porter also brings adolescent girls
who have been in violent situations to her ranch to
work with trained horses.
The girls learn that "if they can control a horse,
they can control their situation," Porter said.
Whether in a hospital or in a therapist's office, animals
often help ease tensions for people who are uncomfortable
or unhappy, she said. "There's less anxiety in
the room when there's an animal there. There is more
connection with the people."
This connection led cardiac nurse Kathie Cole, MN,
RN, to start the People-Animal Connection program at
UCLA Medical Center in 1994. Cole, a dog owner, thought
that dogs might help cheer up heart-transplant patients
while they waited for donor organs. She has expanded
from 12 cardiac dogs to 50 volunteer dog-and-handler
teams who visit 37 units in the hospital.
Volunteer teams must go through a training program
based on one created by the Delta Society, a Seattle-area-based
nonprofit organization that screens dogs for personality,
obedience and hospital training.
By the end of the training, dogs must be able to endure
everything from yanks on their ears and tails to people
screaming and moaning to wheelchairs whirling down corridors.
Handlers learn hospital protocol, how to place dogs
on beds, how to encourage them to interact with patients
and how to look for signs of stress that show the animal
has had enough.
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