Etablierung tiergestützter Therapie an einer psychiatrischen Universitätsklinik: Ergebnisse der Vorstudie und Ausblick

Zusammenfassung

Anliegen: Evaluation eines Pilotprojekts zur Etablierung tiergestützter Therapie (Hund) in der Klinikroutine einer psychotherapeutischen Station.

Methode: Naturalistisches Design. Eingeschlossen wurden 22 Teilnehmer. Messinstrumente beinhalteten das Beck-Depressions-Inventar (BDI) sowie die Befindlichkeitsskala (BFS).

Ergebnisse: Die Intervention verbesserte signifikant Befindlichkeit und Wohlbefinden gegenüber der Kontrolle.

Schlussfolgerungen: Tiergestützte Therapien stellen eine Bereicherung des Behandlungsangebots dar und können genutzt werden, um die Aufnahme- und Teilnahmebereitschaft für etablierte Therapieformen zu verbessern.

Abstract

Objective: Dogs have been integrated in human society over centuries. This process has selected unique social and communicative skills. Dogs are thus able to represent social substitutes for human counterparts in cases of social withdrawal. Furthermore, dogs act as “social catalysts” in promoting interhuman encounters. Thus, the integration of dogs in psychotherapeutic concepts addressing social and interpersonal deficits may be of special interest.

Methods: The present investigation reports the results of a pilot study to establish animal-assisted therapy (dogs) at a psychiatric department. The animal-assisted intervention straddled the following areas: (1) contact making, communication and orientation to needs, (2) recreation and play, (3) outward orientation, (4) release and farewell. The sample comprised 22 subjects.

Results: The results demonstrated in particular that the animal-assisted intervention significantly promoted unspecific aspects of positive affectivity and wellbeing. Evaluation of the overall acceptance of the dog on the psychiatric ward revealed very positive feedback.

Conclusions: We conclude that animal-assisted therapies represent a significant enchrichment of the therapeutic context, that may be used to enhance the patients’ openness and adherence to conventional therapies.

Schlüsselwörter

tiergestützte Therapie - Depression - Hund

Keywords

animal assisted therapy - depression - dog

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