An NHS trust in London is tapping into the well known mood-boosting power of animals, scaling up the use of animal therapy across its mental health services. Many experts say more evidence is still needed to prove its worth, but the trust says it has already seen the benefits for its patients and is now expanding the approach.
At the heart of the programme are animals like Ruby, a therapy dog offered as part of the trust's mental health services. For Frankie, a former service user who has been through extremely difficult times and finds it hard to engage with traditional talking therapies, the appeal is simple. With pet therapy there is no sense of judgment, and the animals provide what was described as a calming, soothing influence.
Ruby came to the role without any specialist training. Her owner, Katia, took her to be assessed by a charity after noticing her potential, a step that decides whether an animal is suited to the demands of the work in a busy clinical environment.
Those demands are considerable in an often noisy, busy hospital setting. A therapy animal needs to be comfortable being stroked by a large number of people, and the assessment tests exactly that, with handlers touching the animal's tail, ears, belly and back. There must be no licking and no jumping up, the kind of behaviour a pet at home might show but which would not work on a ward.
Ruby is not the only animal on the team, which also includes Archie the Yorkie Poo and Jessie the cat. Staff point to a clinical rationale behind the comfort of stroking a dog or cat, noting that a lot of research has been done showing pet therapy can be beneficial. Many of their patients have not had the chance to explore safe and nurturing relationships, and having an animal present helps to foster that kind of relationship over a longer period of time.
The trust says it has seen a strong effect among people who have suffered trauma in the past, as well as those diagnosed with bipolar affective disorder, and that it works well for patients living with dementia. While some experts continue to call for more research, the trust is now rolling out animal therapy across all of its sites on the strength of what it has observed.
Expanding the programme does come at a cost, with the trust estimating that scaling up animal therapy will run to thousands of pounds. Even so, it argues that this is a small price to pay for the big difference the animals can make to people in its care.