The role of animal-assisted interventions in anti-oppressive social work practice.

Melissa Marie Legge

doi:10.32920/ryerson.14645247

Abstract

This study explores the role that animal-assisted interventions (AAI) can play in antioppressive social work practice. A review of relevant literature has shows that while AAI have been demonstrated over time to have many benefits for service users, these types of interventions remain neglected by social work scholarship, and the relationship between AAI and antioppressive practice (AOP) has yet to be explored through research. Engaging a critical, AOP, and ecofeminist approach, this study uses qualitative methodology to explore the research question, “What role can animal-assisted interventions play in anti-oppressive social work practice?” Ultimately, this study confirms that AAI practitioners have found their approaches to be congruent with an anti-oppressive approach to social work practice. Data and themes which support this finding, as well as implications for the field of social work and recommendations for future research, are explored.

Highlights

Prior to moving to Toronto in September of 2012, I worked as a front-line social work practitioner with youth experiencing homelessness in Halifax, Nova Scotia
I will explore the congruences of AOP social work and animal-assisted interventions (AAI), including the role of AOP theory in AAI practice, parallels between oppression faced by humans and other animals, as well as challenging dominant discourses and problematic social constructions of people who experience oppression
The results of this study indicate that AAI can be congruent with an antioppressive approach to social work practice

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Prior to moving to Toronto in September of 2012, I worked as a front-line social work practitioner with youth experiencing homelessness in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I am influenced by those scholars in social work who share my interest in this subject matter, and who have laid the groundwork for the research that I hope to undertake in the future It is a tenet of anti-oppressive (AOP) social work that all people are subject to the effects of the dynamics of oppression and privilege in our society, what bell hooks (2000) has described as the “white supremacist capitalist patriarchy” The pervasive nature of this potentially unattainable ideal of the neoliberal subject exacerbates the effects of anthropocentrism, as well as other forms of marginalization, in social work, and, more broadly, in society at large In this oppressive system, anyone who is unable to strive toward the embodiment of this ideal neoliberal subject with adequate zeal is characterized as the “Other”. I hope to begin a concerted investigation of the issue of anthropocentrism in social work through an exploration of the emerging field of AAI and human animal bond (HAB) in social work

CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW Literature Search Strategies

DISCUSSION

Findings

Limitations