“I don’t think I’d be alive if I didn’t have her.” Cheryl Howker, 28, tried to kill herself four times before adopting Lucy, the beagle, in September 2016. “She’s far from perfect but I wouldn’t change her. Because her personality is what I need.” 

 

IT is widely known that animals bring comfort to our lives. But animals can also help people to open up. This makes them a great addition to therapy. Most often used in partnership with other treatments, such as medicines, animal-assisted therapy can assist those with mental health issues. 

 

The use of animals in therapy, both at home and in practices has become increasingly popular in the US. However, in the UK the therapy has struggled to take the same steps.  

 

In 2017 Martina Lundqvist and her colleagues at a Swedish university found four studies of dog-assisted therapy for mental health. Three were with children, and one was with adults. Two of the studies with young people were for acute mental health conditions and were compared with usual treatment. The young people had better overall functioning, attended school more, and felt that their symptoms had reduced. The study of adults with a diagnosis of schizophrenia reported that after 24 weeks of dog-assisted therapy they had increased motivation and levels of stress were lower. 

 

It’s not just Cheryl’s depression that has improved with the help of Lucy, but also her anxiety. ‘Without Lucy I wouldn’t have ever thought about doing this and I definitely wouldn’t be able to look someone in the eye.’ 

 

A study by Emily Wood and her colleagues at the University of Sheffield found even a short amount of time spent with an animal improves stress and anxiety. The study took a group of students and allowed them to spend only 15 minutes with two dogs. The study concluded that this was a very cost-effective way to deliver stress management to students. This has been recognised by several universities including City, University of London, which invites a mobile farm to the university once a year during the exam season.  

 

Although, this therapy is not as new as it may seem. Animal-assisted therapy has been around for hundreds of years with one of the earliest cases being conducted by Boris Levinson in 1884 when a child who had been making no progress in psychotherapy incidentally met Levinson’s dog, and the meeting marked an upsurge in the child’s progress. In addition to this, Doctor Sigmund Freud is also reported to have used his dog in his clinic. 

 

Despite it not being popular in the UK, the current evidence is strongly in favour of animal-assisted therapy. Behaviour expert Richard Daniel Curtis thinks our British culture is a big factor, “American culture means Americans are much more emotionally literate than us. It is much more common for them to do therapy, it’s even often included in sitcoms. Whereas in the UK it’s much more a-typical.”   

 

There are more than just the mental health benefits of animal-assisted therapy. The contact with animals can also improve communication, confidence and increases endorphins which can improve physical health. “Patients with a positive attitude often recover from injury and illness quicker,” Richard Daniel Curtis adds.  

 

It is also not just Cheryl who benefits from Lucy’s calm temperament and listening skills. Cheryl’s friend’s daughter also finds comfort in her. “She’ll tell Lucy that another little girl in the class has picked on her. But she wouldn’t tell us because she’s scared,” Cheryl explains.  

 

Most of the time animal-assisted therapy refers to therapists using an animal during therapy sessions. However, animal-assisted therapy is much broader than this. There are the traditional therapy sessions conducted by a therapist as well as group animal-assisted therapy sessions. In addition to these, there are voluntary organisations using Pets as Therapy animals visiting hospitals and other places regularly. Then there are emotional support animals, which are closer to service animals, although these are more common in the US. 

 

In the US emotional support animals have dramatically increased in popularity over the last few years, with the number of emotional support animals travelling aboard commercial flights jumping 74 per cent, from 481,000 in 2016 to 751,000 in 2017. Whereas in the UK there were around 4500 Pets as Therapy dogs and 100 Pets as Therapy cats in 2015. 

 

Cheryl has had a number of complex physical and mental disabilities all of her life and was unable to get an assistance dog through the traditional charities, “Because I have so many needs, they said they couldn’t train a dog to do more than one job. Which from my experience, is just untrue.” 

 

There isn’t currently any specific training for an animal which assists in therapy this makes them different from service animals. However, to receive recognition from certain agencies, such as PAT, and to be insured the animals must show simple training and demonstrate that they have the right temperament to do the job without causing harm to themselves or others.  

 

Lucy and Cheryl go training on as many Tuesdays as possible. However, the nearest place she can get the training she requires on a one to one basis is an hour’s drive away and a carer is not able to take her every week.  

 

Registering an emotional support animal in the UK is undemanding and does not require a professional’s diagnosis. A therapy dog collar can simply be bought online. Whereas in the US an emotional support animal must be registered and certified by a mental health professional. This lack of regulation in the UK undermines the importance of emotional support animals.  

 

Cheryl says, “Registering Lucy as a therapy dog online was really easy.” Because Lucy is also a certified service animal, she is covered by the 2010 Equality Act which prevents any establishment from treating Lucy and Cheryl less favourably than any other customer. 

 

Some NHS hospitals have a protocol set out for animal-assisted therapy, such as The State Hospital Scotland which is using animal-assisted therapy in a number of ways to treat patients.  

 

Richard Daniel Curtis says, “Recently there has been a real shift in attitude. We have realised that pets are an important part of people’s lives. Just as children feel lost without their parents when in hospital, it is the same for patients with their pets. By bringing in animals it gives people a huge surge in endorphins as well as nostalgia.” 

 

But for the NHS clinics which do not have policies covering animal-assisted therapy, the majority of animals are not allowed in the hospital. This is much like shops where this is not a health and safety law but is down to the individual organisation. Although animals are not allowed in areas where food is being prepared under current law. 

 

Animals in animal-assisted therapy must also be insured. Erica Terry-Rose, 31, who runs animal assisted therapy sessions in businesses and schools, insures her four rabbits as a business. Insurance can start from £17.99 a month in the UK, this verifies both the clients and animals are kept healthy. Erica says, “I have applied for an animal welfare licence and I have also done an animal behaviour course because you need to be aware of the animals needs and their welfare.” 

 

Erica is trained as a practitioner and has taken courses in animal-assisted therapy. Compared to Lucy, Erica’s rabbits are not service animals which can make Erica’s job harder when looking to take on individual clients. “I went into a local hospital and said I wanted to help out and they thought it was a great idea but they couldn’t do it because of health and safety,” she says. 

 

The lack of awareness has played a significantly large part in the restricted progress of animal-assisted therapy with less than five per cent of people knowing someone who has tried animal-assisted therapy. 

 

It can be difficult for people to find out whether their local NHS establishment offers animal- assisted therapy. In response to the survey, nine out of ten people said they did not know if it was available to them at their local hospital and eight out of ten people believe it’s not available at all on the NHS. 

 

Another issue that animal-assisted therapy faces is that not everyone is open to the idea. Some are allergic to animals which means that animal-assisted therapy is out of the question. Another restriction is the fear of animals that some people face. Although there is a range of animals which can be used in animals-assisted therapy, there is not enough of a range in each area to give patients the option. 

 

The benefits can be significant, but many hospitals are behind and are lacking a policy. Richard Daniel Curtis believes this is down to a lack of funding; “Austerity has had a huge impact on access to therapies. Unless a patient is a danger, patients cannot access therapy through the NHS. The only way they can access therapy is through paying and then it goes full circle.”