Abstract
Objectives: This short paper is part of wider research aimed at comparing the effects of Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT) with a standard treatment protocol in 20 children and adolescents admitted to psychiatry hospitals for severe mental breakdown (with RCT). After analysing the global results we concluded that the benefits could not only be described in terms of direct effectiveness and care outcomes, but there were also other factors that we should consider, in particular in relation to the context of care. The focus was to analyze those factors, because the results of this treatment were quite distinctive and specific to AAT. The main purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which parents and nurses accept the effects of AAT and perceive its efficacy. Method: For this purpose, at the end of the AAT treatment, we gave a specially formulated questionnaire to both parents and nurses. Results: Data analyses showed that nurses evaluate AAT to be very efficient in improving both the adolescent's quality of stay in hospital and also their compliance with the care provided. Parents expressed a strong acceptance of AAT and evaluated this treatment as an efficient way to both improve the way in which their children express emotions and also facilitate their social skills. Conclusion: The study confirms, in a wider context, the results of our previous studies, not only on the clinical efficacy of AAT, but also on the perceived efficacy for parents and hospital staff and in the general context of care. This underlines the importance to further analyze the factors related to the environment and document the indirect benefits related to a more positive care environment.
Highlights
ResultsData analyses showed that nurses evaluate Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) to be very efficient in improving both the adolescent's quality of stay in hospital and their compliance with the care provided
Parents expressed a strong acceptance of Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) and evaluated this treatment as an efficient way to both improve the way in which their children express emotions and facilitate their social skills
After analysing the global results we concluded that the benefits could be described in terms of direct effectiveness and care outcomes, but there were other factors that needed to be taken into consideration, in particular in relation to the context of care
Summary
The results showed general satisfaction with AAT, both from nurses and parents. In particular, nurses perceived the significant way AAT had contributed towards the improvement in the young patients’ compliance to care and their greater acceptance of treatment (f.4). AAT could be considered an added burden for healthcare staff, when compared to other forms of treatment but the data from our study excluded this We believe that this aspect is important and specific to AAT, and that it is characterized by the broad-resonance effects on the environment, the promotion of social and relational aspects, normalizing, and the experiences of positive emotional sharing. The parents of the adolescents who received AAT perceived, in their children, a greater acceptance of the hospital experience, clinical practices and treatments (f.4) and a significant improvement in their emotional expression (f.3) and social skills (f.3) (Figure 2) We selected this item because it seemed important for the therapeutic alliance and collaborative interactions within the ward. This data may be significant in promoting positive parental mirroring, which is one of the basic objectives of hospital intervention
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