Recognizing Animals as an Important Part of Helping

Abstract

The beneficial role of companion animals on human health and wellbeing across the life span is well documented in the rapidly expanding multi disciplinary body of literature known as human animal interactions (HAI). Social workers practice at the interface of people and their diverse environments. The presence of human animal bonds (HAB) within client systems, between people and companion animals in particular, are increasingly acknowledged and valued by social workers. Additionally, some social workers incorporate animals in their practice through animal assisted interventions (AAI). However, there is a paucity of empirical literature on social workers’ knowledge about and experiences with the inclusion of animals. We conducted a survey across three prairie provinces in Canada, replicating a study that was first implemented nationwide in the U.S. and later in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. The survey explored social workers’ knowledge of HAI in social work. The results, similar to the Nova Scotia and U.S. findings, suggest that s social workers have general knowledge about HAI and the HAB, and that some do incorporate animals in practice. Social workers seem to have increasing knowledge and skills about HAI. While this is a positive trend, there is nonetheless a need for specialized education and training on the beneficial impact that companion animals can have on social work practice. In this paper, the application of zooeyia within social work is adopted as one approach to understanding HAB. Important implications for human health and wellbeing and social work practice at the practitioner and organizational levels are discussed.

An Experiential Approach to Canine-Assisted Learning in Corrections for Prisoners Who Use Substances

“…The institution has a capacity of 582 medium-risk prisoners and 122 minimum-risk prisoners (Correctional Service Canada, 2017). Drumheller's canine-assisted learning and wellness program for substance use, PAWSitive Support, is an intensive 3.5-day (28-hour) program that focuses on participants' connections and bonds with the program dogs (Chalmers et al, 2023). The program was designed for those serving life sentences and who had unintentionally overdosed in the facility.…”

“…In turn, they reflected on how they had treated others in the past (including dogs and humans) related to of their addiction and mental health issues and discussed changing their behaviors in the future. Thus, there may be other ways that prisons can draw on human–animal interaction in substance use programming, including information about participants' own pets (Chalmers et al, 2020; Hanrahan & Chalmers, 2020). For example, a pet query is a simple question that asks about current or previous pets in the household (Hodgson et al, 2017).…”

Die Bedeutung von Kumpantieren für Opioidabhängige in Substitutionstherapie

“…Der Anspruch, Tiere in die Betrachtung und Hilfeplanung zu integrieren, wird auch in der Sozialarbeit formuliert 20 21 22 26 27 28 29 30 . Ein erster Schritt wäre es, bei der Suchtanamnese systematisch zu erfassen, ob Tiere gehalten werden, so dass im weiteren Verlauf auch dieses Thema regelmäßig aufgerufen und reflektiert werden kann.…”

Animal Assisted Intervention at The Nelson ARK: A social work placement reflection

“…Bretzlaff-Holstein 2018indicates that attention to animals in social work practice and education is limited and has largely focused on the social and therapeutic benefits of the human-animal bond/partnerships (Risley-Curtiss, 2010), the relationship between animal cruelty and family violence (Adamson & Darroch, 2016;Walker, Aimers, & Perry, 2015), how animals feature in the context of disasters (see Adamson & Darroch, 2016) and attention to grief and loss (see Arkow, 2020). Chalmers, Dell, Dixon, Dowling, and Hanrahan (2020) argue that, while attention to human-animal relations is gaining traction for social work educators, researchers and practitioners, there is not yet the education and training in place to support this growing area of interest. Moreover, Hanrahan (2013) found that, while social workers have an awareness of the value of human-animal relations, either this is largely ignored in practice or practitioners are including animals in their practice but without specific training to do so.…”