Pet Insurance

Mental health therapy using pets is a new form of alternative therapy that’s helping out patients in psychological rehabilitation centres. This form of therapy is also known as Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT).

Pets are playing an important role in our life and share a large part of our family. Today, millions of dogs, cats, horses, birds, fish and several other pets are sharing our households. 90% of pet owners value their pets as being very important while 79% of them believe pets to be their closest friend.

Loneliness and depression is rampant in our life and in such situations pets play an important role in providing with much needed love, safety and protection. Pets encourage interaction and also serve as conversation partners; even the sense of touch can be achieved with pets. All these features make pets an important mental health therapist.

In mental health pet therapy the health-related aspect of animals and pets comes into play. Interacting with animals that are strong gives a sense of security and mental health patients often prefer talking to pets rather than human beings. The non judgemental characteristic of pets also helps in allowing the mental patients to interact with them and reduce their stress. Interacting with pets also develops the trust and self- esteem of the patients and helps to boost up their ego.

Mental patients benefit largely from the social and emotional bonding that it creates with animals. Patients with poor communication skills lack judgement and don’t open up in front of people. But in the presence of a cat or a dog they find it much easier to communicate easily and explain themselves.

It has been noted that children with severe ADHD showed improvement once they were put under mental health pet therapy. Marked improvement in patients with Alzheimer’s disease was also noted. Incidentally the most prominent improvement was in their attention power which improved immensely and in their aggressiveness which lessened remarkably. Depressed patients too showed marked improvement in their socialization skills.

Generally good temperament pets such as friendly dogs are used as pet therapists. Animals that are physically strong are preferred as they have to regularly undergo tests and must have listening skills and patience. Animals with specific skills and abilities are generally utilized in the critical therapeutic cases.

Depressed people lack focus and remain lost in their own world. Therapy dogs are a great help for such patients as they induce the patients to come out of their own world and take a note of what’s happening outside. Mental patients are triggered by the constant presence of pets around them and are advised to talk about them. This way they come out of their cocooned world and learn socializing skills.

Psychiatrists say that patients who had had pets previously recuperated much faster when they were introduced to pet therapists as they were freer with them and could relate to them instinctively. Patients who never had instances of interacting with pets also show marked improvements in the company of mental health pet therapists.

Children are innocent and those who have undergone some traumatic event can recover quickly if an animal is present during his/her therapy process. The situation becomes less troublesome for them as the pets provide security; they assist children in explaining their problems and traumas more explicitly.

However, it must be noted that AAT is not always possible and patients may often react aggressively in presence of pets. Patients who had no instance of knowing pets previously may often react in a negative way. Further, patients might be allergic to pets or have certain phobias. In such cases their mental health pet therapy must be stopped immediately.