Why Animal-Assisted Therapy?

I have found that most animal-assisted therapy (AAT)teams start with visiting nursing homes in which dementia patients reside or visiting hospitals and adult day centers.  Generally, they are involved with the activities department of the facility, visiting in the Animal Assisted Activity realm, the warm, fuzzy visit.  That is where I began many years ago.

Several years ago my Mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer.  Not long after that she was moved into a nursing home in our hometown.  Aubie, my 9 year-old shih-tzu, was just a young dog and my mother just loved him.  I would take him on my visits to see my mother and Aubie was a natural.  He would visit everyone on the way in and on the way out.  One day on the way out Aubie jumped into the lap of a woman that had Alzheimer’s.  I was very upset because I did not expect it, I did not know what she was going to do, and her son was standing next to me.  She just reached down, petted Aubie and and a giant smile appeared on her face.  I was relieved and turned to her son to apologize only to find him with tears running down his face.  Again concerned, I asked him what was wrong, afraid that Aubie had created a problem.  Through his tears, he told me that it was the first time he had seen his Mother smile in two years.  It was then that I knew the power of relationship between people and animals.

 Put as simply as possible, when introduced properly into a therapeutic setting, animals make people feel better, improve quality of life and assist in healing.  In addition, an animal’s loyalty and authentic nonjudgmental willingness makes our relationships with them some of the most enduring and safe interactions possible.   Utilizing animal-assisted therapy allows healthcare workers to relate with patients experientially, rather than relying strictly on the therapeutic understanding of families, individuals, and groups that may be lost, literally, in translation.   

AAT has been found to be beneficial with all age groups, children, adolescents, young and older adults.  In long-term care, focusing on AAT as compared to other non-animal therapy activities.  The outcome of the study concluded that residents involved in the AAT activities were three times more likely to initiate and have longer conversations than those involved in the traditional activities.  The most important finding appeared to be the frequency of touch.  Since touch is a considerable part of human socialization and the elderly are often deprived of physical affection, touching the animals during the visits increased the residents’ positive social behavior and improved quality of life.  The next step is to prove to the world what we already know through research. 

Dementia is a loss of previous levels of cognitive, executive, and memory function in a state of full alertness.  Primary dementia is irreversible.  Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common form of dementia, is a progressive disease for which there is no cure.  This disorder creates a large and growing public health problem.  Because there is currently no successful cure or method of prevention, the main goal of most interventions is to improve patients’ quality of life.  Social and recreational activities are important for achieving these goals.  Although (AAT) has previously been instituted as a therapeutic activity for residents of long-term care facilities, there is little empirical research documenting its effectiveness, especially in patients with cognitive impairments.  Human-animal interaction research is in great need of carefully controlled, empirical studies that are able to demonstrate concrete, measurable results. 

This research project is designed to compare AAT with human interaction in improving the social outcomes of persons with dementia living is long term care facilities.  We will conduct a controlled trial with randomized cross-over between conditions. Persons with dementia  living in long term care facilities will be included in the study. Consented, willing participants will be assigned in random order to AAT or human interaction (control) blocks for two weeks then switched to the other condition.  Specially trained dogs and their handlers will visit patients using standard AAT protocols.  The control intervention consists of conversation or reading from and looking at pictures in a newspaper to control for non-specific benefits of one-to-one interaction. Presence of positive and negative social behaviors and level of engagement will be measured during the visits as well as weekly measure of the Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory.

Participating faculty will also engage undergraduate nursing students who receive training in animal-assisted therapy to participate in this project.  Faculty believe this opportunity will provide a positive learning experience for these students and positively affect students’ overall attitude about caring for the elderly.  In addition the effects of the visits and interaction on the attitudes toward working with older people will be measured with the students involved in the project.  Our results show that use of AAT is effective in improving the behavior of individuals with dementia, it will potentially provide a safer and more enjoyable intervention rather than reliance on pharmacology alone.

 

Dr. Caralise Hunt

Dr. Caralise Hunt is a well-respected professor here at Auburn University. She has taught part or full-time for 15 years. She teaches fundamentals, health assessment, and medical-surgical nursing at Auburn. She has recieved her BSN from Auburn University, her MSN from Troy, and recently completed her PhD from the University of Alabama Birmingham. Her dissertation topic was: Relationships among Self-Efficacy, Social Support, Social Problem-Solving, and Self-Management Behaviors of People Living with Type 2 Diabetes in Rural Alabama. She has worked as a medical-surgical nurse as well as mother-baby nurse. Dr. Hunt is married to her husband Chuck and has two children: Corey who is 15 years old and Carter who is 11 years old. She also has two kittens that are named Auburn and Spirit. Some of her favorite things to do in her free time is to watch her son Corey play lacrosse and watch Carter play baseball. Dr. Hunt also enjoys watching Auburn football.

Blue Jean Ball

The Bluejean Ball was held on Friday before the Florida game on Oct 14th. There is no way that I can put into words the imact this event has had over the last 11 years. Couch Dye and Dr. Nancy McDonald have hosted it each and every year and influenced the lives of hundreds of students. I have been told by many students that the BJB scholership was what keep them in school. Couch Dye and Dr. McDonald we love you and appreciate all that you do. Not only was the event sucessfuli in funding scholarship it was so much fun. Aubie was there and the Raptor Center was there with many of their birds. The music was excellent and the food was great. BBQ, beef brisqet and Conecuh sausage with bannana pudding for desert - a southern meal that cannot be beat. There were many, that had attended several and thought this was the best. I have enjoyed them all but this one was special. The help that we recieved from so many AUSNA students was unbelievable.

The new year for the AUSNA started off with a bang. Our second meeting of the year was attended by over 100 members. Preliminary plans for Project Underpants (PU), T-shirt and sweatshirt design, State Convention, National Convention, and Committee of 19 were discussed. Final plans for all of these will be discussed later, but here are some highlights for now.

Project Underpants will go international. A portion of the PU donations will go to an orphanage in Africa. Dr. Constance Hendricks made a

presentation to AUSNA and asked for our support. The membership voted unanamously to support the project in Africa. This project will begin on October 4th and continue until Thanksgiving break. The T-shirt and sweatshirt designs were a big hit in the meeting. In the meeting the design for the T-shirt was voted upon and was decided that we will have an orange shirt with blue lettering. Florence Nightengale will be on the back of the shirt with part of the Auburn creed underneath it. The sweatshirt will be navy blue with a Vera Bradley print on the front in orange. Both the T-shirts and the sweatshirts will be available for sale in the upcoming months and will be announced. The State Convention this year for nursing will be held in Auburn! War Eagle! The convention is on October 20-21st and will take place in the Auburn Hotel. The National Convention will be held in Pittsburgh which will take place in the month of March. Details regarding both conventions will be coming soon. Ashley Bett also spoke at our previous AUSNA meeting about the Committee of 19 which fights for the war against hunger taking place all over the world and what the AUSNA and other people can do to help. We will be collecting food for the Committee of 19 on October 19th in honor of World Hunger Day.

Our next meeting is on October 4th at 6 pm in Miller Hall and we will be kicking off our Project Underpants campaign. Pizza and soft drinks will be served.

Plans for Spring

This is the new golden I am training for next year. Her name is Miller and she is so sweet, energetic, curious, and exhausting. Aubie has not adjusted to having a little sister. Her energy level is just too high.

Lots of plans are being made for the pet assisted therapy (PAT) program at Auburn University for spring. I hope to have a speaker from Canine Assistants of Atlanta to speak in January. Check out their website - they are awesome. I have completed Pet Partners Seminar, Therapy Dogs Inc. testing and observations, and Reading Education Assitant Dog (READ) training. I will complete the READ observations in January. Aubie and I are a registered therapy team and will soon be a READ Team. I will be attending a three-day seminar in Febuary and try to learn more about human-animal interaction. In April I will be traveling to Salt Lake City, Utah to visit with the Executive Director of Intermountain Therapy Dogs to look at the structures of their programs and to discuss the international aspects of PAT.

I would like to thank Melissa Saul for her help to get much of this accomplished. She has dedicated so much time to Animal Assisted Therapy and her love for animals and people of all ages is a great example of what a person can do. This is a picture of her and her dog Gina (on right) and her friend Tina and her dog at the READing Paws training in Newnan, GA. Aubie and I visited with Melissa at a nursing home in Newnan and it was such great fun.
During fall finals Aubie visited with nursing students before finals to relieve tension. It is always amazing to watch the smiles when a happy little dog walks in. The results are instant and obvious. Aubie loves his new role as therapy dog. The possibilities for this program are endless.

This is the group that completed the Pet Partners Training in Atlanta back in August. Melissa also helped to teach that class. This was great fun and I learned so much.

Animal Assisted Therapy

Through a generous donation a pet-assisted therapy program will be started at Auburn University School of Nursing. At this time, we have about 15 students who are interested in learning more about how pets can help people. The first training that was attended happened in Atlanta on August 28-29, 2010. Two things happened at the training. First, I met some great people who love animals and have a desire to use that love for animals to help those who need help because of illness or disability. Second, I was introduced to some of the greatest dogs you could ever be around. These dogs had awesome dispositions and unbelievable obedience. It is so funny to watch someone come into the room and then their face lights up when greeted by one of the therapy dogs. I watched dogs that could dance and do other things but the greatest thing was what they did for every person who was at the program and that was “make them feel better.”

I have been asked, “What does pet-assisted therapy have to do with nursing? Doesn’t that belong in the Vet School?” My answer is a quick—NO! I have great long-standing relationships with veterinarians since I was very young. I grew up on a cattle farm where we had horses and many dogs—both cattle dogs and hunting dogs. I have a great respect for vets but this therapy is on people, not animals and no one is better equipped to work with people than nurses. Nurses are capable of working with people on every level and in every environment. Nurses are not put-off by the bells and whistles of the hospital or the smells that bothers others. We are not disturbed by wounds or tubes or monitors. Nurses work with people and families that are at some of the worst moments in their lives. Nurses understand how attitude, hope, and good and bad emotions affect physical health.

Some facts
· Animal assisted therapy lowers blood pressure
· Researchers discovered that a 12-minute visit with man’s best friend helped heart and lung function by lowering pressures, dismissing release of harmful hormones and decreasing anxiety among hospitalized heart failure patients. Benefits exceeded that resulted from a visit with a human volunteer or from being left along.
· Animal Assisted Therapy has been shown to reduce anxiety and depression. Anxiety was reduced 24% for participants who received a visit from an animal assisted therapy team.
· Presence of a therapy dog lowers behavior distress in children during a physical exam.
· Abstinence from drugs - The presence of the dog resulted in altered barriers to communication between the nurse and clients, which in turn resulted in enhanced transactions. The transactions allowed the participants to assimilate information and improve their feelings of self-esteem. The improved self-image allowed the volunteers a greater understanding of their recovery process.
· Reading with children - children who are learning to read get stressed, not because they aren’t capable of reading but because they get nervous and self-conscious, they worry about making mistakes—and all those worries make it hard to focus. They dread reading in front of their friends, so they often “freeze up” and things just get worse. When they read with a dog, right away they start to relax, and then they forget about feeling self-conscious or nervous, and pretty soon things start to flow a little better. Before they know it, they are enjoying the experience of reading instead of dreading it; they’re even looking forward to the next time. It is simple, and it works beautifully!
· Animal assisted therapy during chemotherapy reduces depression of patients and increases arterial oxygen saturation.

Nurses are the perfect profession to be involved in an animal assisted therapy or assistance. They understand treatment plans and medical needs. The nursing profession is the most caring profession in existence and is the most respected within healthcare.

If you would like to know more about animal–assisted therapy or would like to help just contact me (Stuart Pope DNP, RN) at the Auburn School of Nursing.

Pictures from the Convention

As everyone heads home for summer, for Auburn Nursing Students only a few days, I would like to reflect on the great year that we have had in the association. When we started out in September, we were small in number but large in resolve. As I write this report, we have 136 members. Thanks to a couple of people especially, that did not get discouraged the AUSNA accomplished some great services for the children of the Auburn/Lee County Head Start. Leslie Day and Katherine Jones assumed tremendous leadership roles to get our Project Underpants up and running. Before the project was over, we had reached an unbelievable goal. We collected so many underpants (5015) that we had to haul them in a truck. That was such an encouragement to me personally and to all the members that joined in the last eight months. Thank you women for you dedication to the AUSNA and to some children whose lives you have touched in a special way. As you graduate I have no doubt that you will be a tremendous asset for the nursing profession, for your new employer and for Auburn University.

Many members that have done so much in the last 4 months that I will not start calling names, least I forget someone. I do want to say that I am proud of each of you and I could not be prouder of our leadership. Anna, Ashley, Elizabeth, and Lindsey have taken up the mantle without any letdown. The transition could not have been smoother. I am certain that we will have a great summer and even a greater fall. As the old saying goes, “the best is yet to come.”


The annual NSNA conference at Disney World in Orlando was wonderful (see pictures). We learned so much and came back with so many ideas. Next year the conference is in Salt Lake City, Utah and I encourage everyone to go. The conference was the best organized I have ever attended. We will talk more about the conference and all that we learned in the days ahead.