Pet Therapy
The Istituto G. Caporale is able to offer a wide range of treatments in the field of Pet Therapy, and this is the result of its many years of experience, and derives from strong motivation and the awareness of being involved with a new science.
Assisted Activities and Assisted Therapies
Activities Assisted by Animals (AAA) have the immediate object of providing wellbeing and a pleasant diversion at a difficult time: think, for example, of a child admitted to hospital, or elderly people living in a care home.
Although the purpose of these activities is light-hearted recreation, they are conducted by people who have undergone special training. The animals have to be selected on the basis of their temperament and character, and they have to have passed an assessment test together with their handler (certification).
Therapies Assisted by Animal (TAA) are run by small work teams; they involve only certified animals and have clearly defined health objectives. They consist of support therapies which complement and reinforce those already being followed by the patient, whether these be pharmacological, physical or psychological.
The duration of a programme of TAA ranges from a minimum of 5-6 months to a cycle repeated over several years.
The professional members of the team are as follows: teachers working with animals, veterinarians, psychologists, rehabilitation therapists, child neuropsychiatrists, geriatricians and neurologists.
The animal species involved are: dogs, cats, rabbits and Tibetan pygmy goats. The dogs receive special training because they have different temperaments and are chosen according to the therapy to be followed.
There is a hall in the Institute reserved for Pet Therapy. These activities, however, are also carried on in hospitals, schools, private residences, care homes and rest homes.
Why animals?
Animals do not judge, they have no concept of "difference", and this absence of judging breaks down inhibitions, i.e. encourages the display of emotion and promotes action.
An animal makes few demands and is easily satisfied: in return it gives much gratification, relating on a level of communication that does not necessarily require the use of words, which are problematic for some people. An animal makes people who take care of it feel useful, and can thus help them come out of depression, can help their self-esteem to grow, and build and reinforce their sense of self. It also invites them to play, stimulating people who have relational problems to interact with it.
A well-trained dog, with patience and intelligence, helps people to achieve objectives in physical rehabilitation and to perform important exercises on the attentive and cognitive level. An animal is not an instrument, it is a living being and in some cases its mere presence, its proximity to a person, has beneficial effects by itself.
In this connection it has been observed that stroking a dog lowers pressure in people who are tense; the brain-waves slow down, indicating a general relaxation, and important and beneficial neuro-hormonal changes take place.
In the numerous programmes which have been run by the Institute's staff since 1996, improvements of this kind have been observed in the people who have taken part.
Animals stimulate relational capabilities in autistic people, becoming facilitators of communication between the operator and the patient; they help improve cognitive capacities in children with learning disorders and old people with senile dementia, incentivizing the ability to remember and the recognition of visual stimuli. Animals' participation in physiotherapy sessions increases patients' motivation. Under the guidance of the physiotherapist, they carry out the required movements while playing and stroking the animal.
First, the dog
The animals most involved in AAA and TAA are dogs, thanks to their great versatility and their longstanding relationship with human beings. Dogs take part in the programmes after undergoing careful character assessment, followed by a training course of cognitive type.
The training which takes place uses techniques based on the zooanthropological (i.e. animal/human) relationship, with the first consideration always being the psycho-physical wellbeing of the animal. The training course takes place on three fronts: education (from ex = out, and ducere = to lead: to bring out the best in someone); instruction (from Latin instruire, to provide someone with tools); and skilling (teaching the performance of work).
Who can benefit from this therapy?
Old people
It is found to be effective on the affective-relational level, encourages people to take care of themselves and alleviates depressive states. In addition, it produces relaxation, with beneficial effects on the circulation and muscle-tone, favours movement and helps people deal with problems of a senso-motor and cognitive type.
Children
It favours physical relaxation in anxious children and stimulates attention where there is a deficit, for example in hyperactive children. It helps children with language and learning problems, even in the most severe cases, such as autism, Down's syndrome and intellectual and motor deficits.
Cardiac patients
The bypass operation is the surgical procedure which most frequently causes depression. It sometimes gives rise to problems of a cognitive nature connected with loss of memory, concentration, capacity for abstraction and linguistic comprehension. Pet Therapy, therefore, is useful in these cases as well.
Patients with psychological/psychiatric disturbances
Using different methods, Pet Therapy also has applications both in anxiety states, depression and eating disorders, and in cases of psychosis.
Immunodepressed and terminally ill patients
Pet Therapy alleviates, distracts, and revives feelings of participation and vitality.
The working team
The working team at the Istituto G. Caporale concerned with AAA and TAA was set up in 1997 and is made up of vets, psychologists, educators, rehabilitation therapists, teachers working with animals, and animal handlers. All the professional members of the team have a suitable background of training, which has endowed them with the high degree of skill essential for:
- assessing the psycho-physical condition of the patient
- designing the objectives of improvement
- assessing and monitoring the state of psycho-physical wellbeing of the animals involved
- conducting activity meetings and therapy sessions.