No dogs. Guide dogs by prior permission

James Pease,Anthony Brown

doi:10.1192/pb.30.12.463

Abstract

Esther Rantzen created the Jobsworth Award before the National Health Service (NHS) invented clinical governance. One wonders sometimes if the NHS would have scooped all their awards had the programme continued. Television presenters also caution against involvement with children or animals, or worst of all both simultaneously. Clearly child and adolescent mental health professionals planning to involve animals in therapy should be cautious even in a semi-rural locality. Animals and children are, however, within our knowledge and skills framework, but not so the finer points of clinical governance.

Highlights

Esther Rantzen1 created the Jobsworth2 Award before the National Health Service (NHS) invented clinical governance
By return I received a memo: ‘Whose dog? Where does it come from? Where will it go? Who will be responsible? What if fleas get into the carpets?’ This seemed to require formal answers so I wrote as follows: Firstly we do have referred a number of patients with animal phobia who, sooner or later, require desensitisation to real animals such as dogs
We could only consider bringing a safe, clean, domestic animal into a clinic setting.The most common type of animal phobia we are asked to deal with is dog phobia, as this often affects children on their way to school and their general social development.We normally draw on a hierarchy of dogs, starting with very small quiet dogs and moving up to large bouncier types

Summary

Introduction

Esther Rantzen1 created the Jobsworth2 Award before the National Health Service (NHS) invented clinical governance. What if fleas get into the carpets?’ This seemed to require formal answers so I wrote as follows: Firstly we do have referred a number of patients with animal phobia who, sooner or later, require desensitisation to real animals such as dogs. Almost always the dogs belong to members of the child guidance staff, we have occasionally borrowed a Great Dane from a neighbour for the technique known as flooding.

Results

Conclusion