Organization of animal-assisted therapy: From voluntary activities to work of professionals

Humankind has always known about the usefulness in integration
of animals for the achievement of such routine goals as hunting, household
and territory protection, transportation, scouting foreign territories and
materials, and overcoming physical limitations. Animals are also highly
valued as agents of socialisation resulting in the integration of various
species in the work of various professions. Social work also increasingly
makes use of professional activities involving animals while working
with clients. Terms such as therapy animals, animal-assisted therapy,
animal-assisted activities, and animal-assisted education are becoming more
relevant in the daily work of social workers, physiotherapists, occupational
therapists, psychotherapists and other professionals. Animals are more
and more often found in hospitals, schools, care facilities, prisons and
other settings. Animal-assisted therapy is a general term including various
activities, causing difficulty to understand and differentiate between the
types of therapy performed with various animal species, which creates the
need to study the experience in ensuring work with therapy animals in
various settings. The results obtained in this study reflect the experiences
working with therapy animals of various professionals including the goal of
integrating therapy animals in professional activity, the goal of the activity
and the steps thereof, target groups and the expected results.