Qualitative Perspectives of an Animal-Assisted Therapy Program

Firmin, Michael W.; Brink, J.; Firmin, Ruth L.; Grigsby, Megan E.; Trudel, Janna Foster

doi:10.1089/act.2016.29073.mwf

Cited by 8 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…A five-section questionnaire was constructed based on a literature review [ 3 , 23 , 36 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 ] and questioning raised during informal interviews and internship. As mentioned before, for this article, we focused our attention on 10 items ( Table 1 ; complete questionnaire in Mignot [ 48 ]).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We used a phenomenological method because it “describes the meaning for several individuals of their lived experiences of a concept or a phenomenon; describing what all participants have in common as they experience a phenomenon” [ 66 ]. Like Firmin et al [ 61 ], we used an open coding strategy with a line-by-line analysis approach to explore data for recurring ideas [ 66 , 67 , 68 ], and developed clusters of meaning into themes. Only the principal investigator conducted the qualitative analysis and did it twice 3 months apart to confirm that the same themes emerged from the data.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Handlers’ Representations on Therapy Dogs’ Welfare

Mignot

Luca

Servais

et al. 2022

Animals

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While research on the benefits of animal-assisted interventions is beginning to build a significant body of work, studies on the well-being of therapy dogs are still in their infancy. Since handlers are the people responsible for their therapy dog’s welfare, we interviewed 111 French handlers through an online questionnaire. Our results underlined that (i) therapy dogs’ welfare is multidimensional when physical and psychological welfare, a balance between work and dog life and the settings and interactions of sessions are all taken into consideration. (ii) The response of our handlers emphasized that considering therapy dog welfare is important for the quality and safety of AAI. (iii) Three categories of risks factors were highlighted: the spatio-temporal framework (planning and environment), the interactions with beneficiaries and the handler themselves. It is particularly important that handlers talk about the negative impact of interactions with beneficiaries since they are at the heart of AAI, however there are few studies focusing on interactions as a stressor for dogs in this practice. Moreover, since there is a potential for positive bias in the handlers’ representations, it is important that they be trained to identify and manage the stress in their dogs. Future research is particularly needed on the impact of interactions during sessions on therapy dog welfare.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Handlers’ Representations on Therapy Dogs’ Welfare

Mignot

Luca

Servais

et al. 2022

Animals

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“…Interestingly, most of the literature regarding pet therapy in schools is written through the lens of the counselor (Coyne-Foresi, 2015;Firmin et al, 2016;Jenkins et al, 2014;Weston, 2010) or educator (Beetz, 2013;Daly & Suggs, 2010;Friesen, 2010;Kirnan et al, 2016;Pinto & Foulkes, 2015). None of the search results for this review yielded research on pet therapy through the lens of the school nurse.…”

Section: Role Of the School Nursementioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, Florence Nightingale (1969) noted that animals assisted patient recovery, specifically patients with prolonged or chronic illness. Currently, AAT takes place in a variety of settings such as hospitals, clinics, and mental health facilities and can involve a variety of animals such as cats, horses, llamas, and dolphins (Daly & Suggs, 2010;Fine & Fine, 2006;Firmin, Brink, Firmin, Grigsby, & Trudel, 2016). This review focuses on dog therapy as an applicable approach for the school setting.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The emotional connection between humans and animals enhances feelings of compassion. Firmin et al (2016) suggested that dogs provide an awareness of a student's own behavior. If a student is able to be calm, gentle, and caring toward the therapy dog, the student learns how to model these behaviors at other times as well: "Once (children) developed emotional connections with the animals and learned to care for them, experiencing the same empathy when interacting with people became significantly less challenging" (p. 208).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Animal-Assisted Therapy Supports Student Connectedness

Fedor¹

2018

NASN School Nurse

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Animal-assisted therapy is a complementary approach to supporting the well-balanced student. In particular, therapy dogs in school can have a direct impact on students' social interactions, class participation, and behavior, as well as strengthening feelings of connectedness in school-a protective factor against risk-taking behaviors. School nurses have the unique charge of acting as liaisons between optimal health and academic success, and they can serve an integral role in animal-assisted therapy programs at school. The benefits of animal-assisted therapy in elementary schools along with the role of the school nurse in the planning and success of the program are described.

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Promoting Children’s Well-Being: Therapy Dogs

Jalongo¹,

Petro²

2018

Children, Dogs and Education

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Qualitative Perspectives of an Animal-Assisted Therapy Program

Cited by 8 publications

References 36 publications

Handlers’ Representations on Therapy Dogs’ Welfare

Handlers’ Representations on Therapy Dogs’ Welfare

Animal-Assisted Therapy Supports Student Connectedness

Promoting Children’s Well-Being: Therapy Dogs

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