Animal-Assisted Therapy: The Doctor Is In

Does Your Cat Want to Become a Therapy Animal? Or, Do You Need a Therapy Animal to Pet? Ginger Tells You How.

Dearest Human,

Did you know that in the 1800s, even Florence Nightingale, the mother of modern nursing, realized that animals provided you humans with emotional relief from illness and discomfort?

Today, specially trained cats and their caretakers are hard at work providing “animal therapy” to ease suffering from all sorts of problems and pains.

Therapy Animals work alongside humans to provide animal-assisted therapy. Animal-assisted therapy can support people’s physical, social, cognitive, and/or emotional health. Dear human, these pets offer needed cuddles for lonely elderly in nursing homes, for teens suffering from depression and anxiety, and for those with developmental conditions, such as autism [1]. Visits from both cats and dogs help patients in long-term care facilities have more frequent and longer-lasting conversations (with the animals as well as other humans) and increase other social interactions, too. [1]

During animal-assisted therapy, human patients tend to give and receive much more touch with a cat or dog “therapist” than they would otherwise (for example, by petting the animals). Petting a cat can improve the patient’s mood.[2] Petting us will also decrease blood pressure [2], release “feel good” chemicals, and lower stress hormones. [3] Another benefit? We cats purr, which is very soothing and, in my humble feline opinion, can help heal your soul.

Because of the research that supports it, animal-assisted therapy is a respected complementary therapy to conventional, medical therapies. [4] And the cool thing? Pet therapy helps us cats, too. For example, being petted can lower pets’ heart rates and reduce their stress hormones, too [5]

Your Pet Can Help Comfort Others!

Compassionate human, Did you know that felines and pet caretakers are needed to visit people who don’t have cats to pet? You and your pet can volunteer to be involved! Just check in your area for organizations that specialize in animal-assisted therapy.

Organizations such as Pet Partners, Animals 4 Therapy, Love on a Leash, and Wags for Hope train therapy cats and their humans to make sure that both you and your furball friend have a positive and safe experience. [6] Why not check out these sites to see what you have to do to participate?

Does Your Cat Qualify?

Want to make people happy by sharing your amazing cat with them?

Talk to your cat and let him know what a therapy visit would entail. For instance, let your cat know that, during a patient visit, she’ll need to stay on a lap and allow a person to hold, touch, and pet her. Your cat will have to remain nice and mellow, even when a facility is crowded and noisy. Your cat is there to work and so can’t get distracted by other things in the room, like dangling hoses or a plate of cookies in the corner.

Train Your Cat to Become a Therapy Cat [7]

Is your cat game? Then, dear human, you two will need to work together to make sure you have some special skills. Animal-assisted therapy programs will help, but here are some ways to get started:

1. Begin by helping your cat become familiar with wearing a harness and walking on a leash.
2. Get your cat used to going to different places and meeting new people.
3. Your cat will have to be accustomed to grooming and bathing, which are requirements for patient visits.
4. You will have to know your cat well and understand how she communicates with her body language to make sure she feels safe and happy during patient visits.
5. Read more at www.internationaljournalofcaringsciences.org

Know a Petless Person In Need of Animal-Assisted Therapy Visits?

Gentle human, if you know of a person who would benefit from hanging out with a therapy animal, you can contact a therapy animal organization and request a visit.

A reputable organization will create a therapy animal program, select an appropriate human-animal team, and design visits to meet the unique needs of the person or facility.[4]

Did you know that, in the past ten years, rates of depression and suicide have been higher than ever among young people, especially girls? The organization Pet Partners developed a program to bring therapy cats and dogs into schools to help young people. Maybe some kids and teens in your community need animal-assisted therapy, too.😨

In Summary:

Now you know, my dear human, that petting a cat during animal-assisted therapy can help improve your mood, decrease your blood pressure, and release “feel good” chemicals. Petting also helps lower animals’ heart rates and stress hormones. Let’s face it, we cats and people are a match made in heaven.

More human-animal therapy teams are needed. Please share my message with others, and let’s spread the cuddles!

Love, Ginger

Please leave comments or questions for Ginger below.

REFERENCES

Dinis F. & Martins, T. L. F.(2016). Does cat attachment have an effect on human health? A comparison between pet owners and volunteers. Behavioral Science, 1, https://doi.org/10.21071/pbs.v0i1.3986
Gee NR, Mueller MK, Curl AL. Human-Animal Interaction and Older Adults: An Overview. Front Psychol. 2017 Aug 21;8:1416. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01416. PMID: 28878713; PMCID: PMC5573436.
HABRI (March, 2020). Top5benefitofthehuman-animal bond. Downloaded August 2023 from https://habri.org/blog/top-5-benefits-of-the-human-animal-bond/
Koukourikos, et al. (2019). Benefits of Animal Assisted Therapy in Mental Health. International Journal of Caring Sciences, 12 (31). https://www.internationaljournalofcaringsciences.org/docs/64_koukorikos_review_12_3.pdf.
Amiot C, & Bastian B. (2016). People and companion animals: It takes two to tango. BioScience, 66(7), 552-560. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biw051.
Kelley, T. L. (2020). What is a Therapy Cat and What do They Do? Downloaded August 2023 from https://www.dailypaws.com/living-with-pets/pet-owner-relationship/therapy-cat
Hunter-Frederick, A. Training Cats to Become Therapy Cats. Downloaded August 2023 from https://journal.iaabcfoundation.org/training-cats-to-become-therapy-cats/

Chrissy

September 1, 2023 at 5:55 pm

Over the past few weeks I’ve unfortunately experienced the effects of having Covid whilst living alone, but it’s been my great privilege to have had my Cat, Hanni by my side both day and night. If it hadn’t been for his loyal and loving companionship I’m sure the illness would have felt far worse ! It’s at times such as this when we truly know exactly the healing power of having a Cat beside us .. Bless their hearts ❤