|
|
The dog and its effect on the human psyche
Široká, Kateřina ; Fiala Šebková, Naděžda (advisor) ; Chmelíková, Eva (referee)
The aim of this bachelor thesis is to create a scientific research which is both comprehensive and current on the topic Dogs and their influence on human mental health. The first part is about general usage of dogs in animal-assisted therapy. The history of the mutual relationship between people and dogs is mentioned briefly, including not only domestication of dogs but also the first utilization of dogs in animal-assisted therapy. Further there are different methods of animal-assisted therapy, which can be divided into activities (AAA), therapy (AAT), education (AAE) and animal assisted crisis response (AACR). Coherent conception of education as we know from other fields is still missing in canistherapy as well as unification of testing rules for dogs used in canistherapy. The mentioned levels of therapists qualifications and testing rules for dogs in canistherapy in this thesis are based on a non-profit organisation Pomocné tlapky o.p.s. The second part of this work is focused on dogs influence on human mental health in different diseases and stages of life. Dogs can have an important role in infants emotional development including self-confidence growth, independence and empathy. Dog assisted therapy is proven to be useful for improving psychosocial adaptation of young people in institutional treatment, who suffer from psychosocial problems caused by a traumatic experience from childhood. Dogs can help to stimulate speech development in autistic children, support social interactions as well as both verbal and nonverbal behaviour. Dog assisted therapy was designed as a care complement for patients with posttraumatic stress disorder because it is well known that dogs have positive influence on reducing stress and anxiety. As anxiety is a key schizophrenia feature, dog assisted therapy is also beneficial when treating this disease. AAT application is used for aphasia patients to aim at their desire to communicate, improving their mood and decreasing their feelings of loneliness. Animal assisted intervention (AAI) is also one of the methods designed to improve life quality of geriatric patients. AAI is used as an innovative means to improve mental health in geriatric patients. Dogs also represent big psychological support in oncology patients and make healing process easier. Dogs support feelings of Calmness, wellbeing and safety during hospitalization. As emerged from many studies, dogs have positive influence on human mental health and due to this it is beneficial to include dog assisted intervention as a complementary method within complex rehabilitation.
|
guest ::
