Organization of animal-assisted therapy: From voluntary activities to work of professionals

Department of Welfare and Social Work, Rıga Stradiņš University, Riga, Latvia

Abstract

Humankind has always known about the usefulness in integration of animals for the achievement of such routine goals as hunting, household and territory protection, transportation, scouting foreign territories and materials, and overcoming physical limitations. Animals are also highly valued as agents of socialisation resulting in the integration of various species in the work of various professions. Social work also increasingly makes use of professional activities involving animals while working with clients. Terms such as therapy animals, animal-assisted therapy, animal-assisted activities, and animal-assisted education are becoming more relevant in the daily work of social workers, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, psychotherapists and other professionals. Animals are more and more often found in hospitals, schools, care facilities, prisons and other settings. Animal-assisted therapy is a general term including various activities, causing difficulty to understand and differentiate between the types of therapy performed with various animal species, which creates the need to study the experience in ensuring work with therapy animals in various settings. The results obtained in this study reflect the experiences working with therapy animals of various professionals including the goal of integrating therapy animals in professional activity, the goal of the activity and the steps thereof, target groups and the expected results.