Growing literature around the benefits of animal-assisted intervention
(AAI) spurs health care professionals and administrators to start new
programs. Yet the trend also raises questions of how best to begin and
run successful AAI programs-under what circumstances, with what staff,
and within what guidelines.
Animal-Assisted Interventions in Health Care Settings: A Best Practices
Manual for Establishing New Programs succinctly outlines how best to
develop, implement, run, and evaluate AAI programs. Drawing on extensive
professional experiences and research from more than fifteen years of
leading the Center for Human-Animal Interaction in the Virginia
Commonwealth University School of Medicine, the authors discuss both
best practices and best reasons for establishing AAI programs. For
thorough consideration, the text explores benefits from a variety of
perspectives, including how AAI can improve patient experience, provide
additional career development for staff, and contribute favorably to
organizational culture and to the reputation of the facility in the
surrounding community.
Developed for administrators as well as for volunteers and staff,
Animal-Assisted Interventions in Health Care Settings includes
practical, case-based examples for easy comprehension and offers an
accompanying online user-friendly template that can be adapted to
develop practice-specific training, evaluation, and procedure manuals.