Animal Assisted Therapy Essay

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Animal-assisted therapy is a medical intervention that uses animals for therapy. These animals are trained to be calm, comforting, and obedient (Marcus, 2013). The first recorded occurrence of animal-assisted therapy was in the late eighteenth century where people brought animals into mental health institutions to increase the patients’ socialization (O’Haire, 2012). Pet therapy is important for, physical, psychological, educational rehabilitation (Moretti et al., 2011). In general, the only dogs that are allowed to go into hospitals are those who have pet therapist certifications or are assisting people with disabilities (Fox Chase Cancer Center Temple Health).
Therapy animals are used for patients with a variety of medical conditions. For …show more content…
Some examples are patients with AIDS, cancer, or a history of strokes. Interacting with these animals can increase their self-acceptance and self-esteem (Barba, 1995). Therapy animals unconditionally accept people regardless of their appearance, abnormal speech, or other conditions. Interacting with animals encourages people to express their emotions without being asked questions or worrying about being rejected. It also encourages people to give and receive love, have similar pleasant memories, feel worthy, play, and laugh (Barba, …show more content…
Treatments based on psychological stimulation and affective-emotional motivation are suitable for elderly people because many of them have comorbidity of mood and cognitive disorders along with anxiety and psychotic symptoms (Moretti et al., 2011). As the population of elderly people increases in America, many elderly Americans will eventually live in long-term care facilities (Banks & Banks, 2002). These facilities restrict the residents’ personal belongings, including having pets. It is common for elderly people in these facilities to feel lonely. However, animal assisted therapy decreases loneliness in elderly people and increases their socialization (Banks & Banks, 2002). Therapy animals are used for people with dementia. After receiving animal assisted therapy, people with dementia have had increases in social interactions and decreases in agitated behaviors (Richeson,
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