Laboratoire D'Anthropologie Sociale et Culturelle, Université de Liège, France; Laboratoire Ethologie, Cognition, Developpement, Université Paris Nanterre, France; R&D Lyon, Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health, Saint Priest, France.
R&D Lyon, Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health, Saint Priest, France.
Complement Ther Clin Pract. 2021 Aug;44:101356. doi: 10.1016/j.ctcp.2021.101356. Epub 2021 Mar 27.
Animal-Assisted Interventions (AAI) are well implemented in human healthcare, in France as elsewhere; yet there are still difficulties in characterizing these practices and misconceptions about their mechanisms - little is known about the French practice of AAI and about the human-animal team.
This study aims to characterize AAI by exploring their specificities through French handlers' perspectives.
An online survey addressed to French handlers working in AAI with mainly one dog was carried out. This research included questions about their practice in AAI (registration status, beneficiaries, and animals) and their background (training in AAI, training in the medico-social field, training in animal behavior). We then examined a phenomenological understanding of handlers' definitions of their practice in AAI, their motivations to work with these approaches, and the expectations of the human-animal team. We used an open coding strategy and created major themes from their answers.
111 handlers participated in this study. The quantitative data highlighted a heterogeneity of handlers' profiles and professional backgrounds, although most profiles had previous training in healthcare. Five themes characterizing AAI emerged from the qualitative analysis: (1) AAI as additional approaches to care settings, (2) AAI as person-centered approaches, (3) the complementarity between handlers and their animal(s), (4) the shared role of mediator, and (5) handlers' beliefs about the human-animal relationship related to their personal experiences. This survey allowed us to understand how the French use AAI and its role in the care system.
The benefits of AAI are numerous both for care settings and for the caregivers mainly by making the care more humane. AAI seem to put the wellbeing of beneficiaries and the relationship with the caregiver at the center of the care. The complementarity of the human-animal team is the common feature of these practices and is critical to their success. Future interdisciplinary studies are required to explore the particularities of these interspecific approaches and the differences between countries.
动物辅助干预（AAI）在法国和其他国家的人类医疗保健中得到了很好的实施；然而，目前仍然难以对这些实践进行特征描述，并且对其机制存在误解——人们对法国的 AAI 实践以及人与动物团队知之甚少。
本研究旨在通过探索法国从业人员的观点来描述 AAI 的特点。
我们对主要使用一只狗进行 AAI 的法国从业人员进行了一项在线调查。这项研究包括有关他们在 AAI 中的实践（注册情况、受益人和动物）和背景（AAI 培训、医疗社会领域培训、动物行为培训）的问题。然后，我们考察了从业人员对其 AAI 实践的现象学理解，他们从事这些方法的动机，以及对人与动物团队的期望。我们使用开放式编码策略，根据他们的回答创建主要主题。
共有 111 名从业人员参与了这项研究。定量数据突出了从业人员概况和专业背景的多样性，尽管大多数从业人员都有以前在医疗保健方面的培训。从定性分析中出现了五个描述 AAI 的主题：（1）AAI 作为护理环境的附加方法，（2）AAI 作为以人为中心的方法，（3）从业人员及其动物之间的互补性，（4）中介的共同作用，以及（5）从业人员对人与动物关系的信念与他们的个人经历有关。这项调查使我们能够了解法国人如何使用 AAI 以及它在护理系统中的作用。
AAI 对护理环境和护理人员都有很多好处，主要是通过使护理更加人性化。AAI 似乎将受益人的福祉和与护理人员的关系置于护理的中心。人与动物团队的互补性是这些实践的共同特征，对其成功至关重要。需要进行未来的跨学科研究，以探索这些种间方法的特殊性以及国家之间的差异。
