Power Of Pet
The Power of the Pet
Tuesday, 29 January 2008
Responder Reflection
by Dr Bianca Felix
Psychiatry is notoriously underfunded and under resourced. Given this situation, you would think the specialty would exploit any resource it could use – especially those that cost little, or nothing, to implement.
The use of domestic animals - pets - in the therapeutic process begins with Psychiatry. Animals were used in The York Retreat, an asylum founded by the Quakers in 18th century England as an alternative to the inhumane Bedlam. More recently, Freud found that when his beloved chow-chows were in the consulting room, the therapeutic process was more successful.
There is a growing body of scientific literature about the benefits of animal-assisted therapy (AAT) in a range of therapeutic contexts, including Psychological Medicine. Indeed, an academic society – the Society of Companion Animal Studies (SCAS) - has been created in the UK to promote the scientific study of animals and human health.
Right now, I am working in the Palliative Care setting; I was delighted to discover that the service has an open door policy for visiting pets. Every time I tell patients and their families that their pets can visit, the emotions pour out - guaranteed. To have the comfort of their animal companion in the otherwise formidable acute care setting (even though it is Palliative Care, it is still a hospital and nothing like home) is an experience that cannot be matched. It is an invaluable dimension of care that costs nothing to provide.
So why can’t we do the same in Psychiatry? I am aware of just one inpatient psychiatric unit in Melbourne that has a visiting animal volunteer service. In Adelaide, several years ago, an inpatient unit benefited from the guide dog puppy that one of the regular nurses was raising. But, generally speaking, visiting pets are not encouraged and certainly do not seem to be welcome on the wards. Why not?!
Psychiatry in particular, but all of Medicine generally, should learn from our Palliative Care colleagues. Our patients have little to lose but much to gain.
In honour of the memory of the original Bianca Felix