Working with Farm Animals as A Therapeutic Intervention for People with Mental and Physical Disorders
By Alex Sargsyan
Every spring we take duck eggs from our farm to the local farmers market. One of our ducks usually accompanies us at those trips and greets customers sitting in the wicker basket. While people react very cheerfully to our duck’s presence, one time it was a rather unusual reaction: a young woman teared up when she saw the duck sitting in her basket. When I asked her what was wrong, she answered, smiling through tears, “she made me feel so good just sitting here and preening her feathers, so I cried because she is so sweet...”
This reaction had me think about the possibility of utilizing ducks as therapy animals. This is a rather unusual approach, but surprisingly I found a relatively large body of the literature that described therapies utilizing farm animals. Animal-assisted therapy (AAT) with farm animals (AATF) may be considered a component of Green Care. Green Care in turn is described as a collection of nature-related therapeutic activities and interventions that may promote health and wellbeing in people. In general, AAT has been beneficial for people with many different illnesses. For example, interaction with animals may improve socialization skills in people with autism. It has been established that interaction with animals may work as a “social lubricant” in interpersonal communication, which is commonly known as an “ice-breaker.” On the other hand there are many studies outlining benefits of pet ownership on cardiac health, and improvement in blood pressure in particular.
Having all this information I decided to focus my PhD studies on AATF with ducks as a possible intervention to decrease depression and anxiety and increase self-efficacy. Self-efficacy may be described as a person’s belief in own abilities to perform a certain task. Before designing and conducting the study exploring AATF with ducks, my dissertation chair, Dr. Lora Beebe, and I, carried out a literature review to answer the question: “Is farm animal-assisted green care beneficial for patients who suffer from mental or physical disorders?”
Our review suggested that AATF indeed may offer significant benefits for patients with a variety of mental health disorders. Studies reflected that AATF may result in decreased depression and improvement in self-efficacy. At the same time engaging in AATF may help to regain a sense of “normalcy” in patients who suffer from anxiety and depression. Certainly, AATF is beneficial to people who suffer from mental health disorders. At the same time our review did not reveal any studies that were focusing on AATF as a therapeutic intervention for physical disorders.
Most of the AATF studies were conducted in Western European countries. While there are multiple settings in the United States that employ AATF as a therapeutic intervention, very few studies focusing on AATF were conducted in the USA. At the end of this review we suggested to conduct future studies with increased sample sizes, consistent time spent with the animals, and possible focus on patients with physical disorders. This literature review served as a foundation to conduct an AATF study as a part of my dissertation focusing on ducks as therapeutic animals in a farm type setting.
Article Details
Animal-Assisted Green Care Farming for Patients With Mental and Physical Disorders: A Narrative Review
Alex Sargsyan & Lora H Beebe
First Published: October 6, 2023
DOI: 10.1177/10784535231195433
Creative Nursing
About the Author
