ANIMAL-ASSISTED THERAPY Recent Titles in Health and Medical Issues Today Stem Cells Evelyn B. Kelly Organ Transplantation David Petechuk Alternative Medicine Christine A. Larson Gene Therapy Evelyn B. Kelly Sports Medicine Jennifer L. Minigh Nutrition Sharon Zoumbaris HIV/AIDS Kathy S. Stolley and John E. Glass Medical Imaging Harry LeVine, III Medicare Jennie Jacobs Kronenfeld Illicit Drugs Richard Isralowitz and Peter L. Myers ANIMAL-ASSISTED THERAPY Donald Altschiller Health and Medical Issues Today Copyright 2011 by Donald Altschiller All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Altschiller, Donald. Animal-assisted therapy / Donald Altschiller. p. ; cm. — (Health and medical issues today) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978–0–313–35720–6 (hard copy : alk. paper) — ISBN 978–0–313–35721–3 (ebook) 1. Animals—Therapeutic use. 2. Pets—Therapeutic use. 3. Human-animal relationships. I. Title. II. Series: Health and medical issues today. [DNLM: 1. Animal Assisted Therapy. 2. Program Development. WM 450.5.A6] RM931.A65A54 2011 615.805158—dc22 2010046066 ISBN: 978–0–313–35720–6 EISBN: 978–0–313–35721–3 15 14 13 12 11 1 2 3 4 5 This book is also available on the World Wide Web as an eBook. Visit www.abc-clio.com for details. Greenwood An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC ABC-CLIO, LLC 130 Cremona Drive, P.O. Box 1911 Santa Barbara, California 93116-1911 This book is printed on acid-free paper Manufactured in the United States of America CONTENTS Series Foreword vii Preface and Acknowledgments ix Introduction xi Section I: Overview 1 1 History of Animal-Assisted Therapy 3 2 Programs for Children 9 3 Programs for the Elderly 21 4 Programs in Prisons 29 Section II: Controversies 37 5 Ethical Issues and Questions about Therapy Effectiveness 39 Section III: Bibliography and Resources 49 Appendix A: Bibliography 51 Appendix B: Primary Documents 87 Index 167 This page intentionally left blank SERIES FOREWORD Every day, the public is bombarded with information on developments in medicine and health care. Whether it is on the latest techniques in treatment or research, or on concerns over public health threats, this information directly affects the lives of people more than almost any other issue. Although there are many sources for understanding these topics—from Web sites and blogs to newspapers and magazines—students and ordinary citizens often need one resource that makes sense of the complex health and medical issues affecting their daily lives. The Health and Medical Issues Today series provides just such a one-stop resource for obtaining a solid overview of the most controversial areas of health care in the twenty-first century. Each volume addresses one topic and provides a balanced summary of what is known. These volumes provide an excellent first step for students and lay people interested in understanding how health care works in our society today. Each volume is broken into several sections to provide readers and researchers with easy access to the information they need: • Section I provides overview chapters on background information— including chapters on such areas as the historical, scientific, medical, social, and legal issues involved—that a citizen needs to intelligently understand the topic. • Section II provides capsule examinations of the most heated contemporary issues and debates, and analyzes in a balanced manner the viewpoints held by various advocates in the debates. • Section III provides a selection of reference material, such as annotated primary source documents, a timeline of important events, and a directory of organizations that serve as the best next step in learning about the topic at hand. The Health and Medical Issues Today series strives to provide readers with all the information needed to begin making sense of some of the most important debates going on in the world today. The series includes volumes on such topics as stem-cell research, obesity, gene therapy, alternative medicine, organ transplantation, mental health, and more. viii SERIES FOREWORD PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My interest in animal-assisted therapy was inspired mainly by my brief service as a volunteer working with college students who brought their dogs to a local nursing home. Watching the residents of this home—who often seemed isolated and lonely—interact with the dogs was a moving experience for me. Since I’ve always loved animals, I was intrigued by this special aspect of the human-animal bond. I began to read about the topic and was impressed by the large amount of literature. As a librarian, I am always concerned with making information accessible to readers, and I noticed that there was no comprehensive bibliography on animal-assisted therapy. I decided to apply for the Carnegie-Whitney Award sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA), which provides “grants for the preparation and publication of popular or scholarly reading lists, indexes and other guides to library resources that will be useful to users of all types of libraries.” As a grateful recipient of this award, I want to thank Don Chatham, the Associate Executive Director of the Publishing Division of the ALA for his support and encouragement. The award provided me with funding to travel to the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland, where I consulted its excellent literature collection on animal-assisted therapy. The award also enabled me to take time off from my job as a bibliographer at Boston University’s Mugar Memorial Library. After further research, I realized that the subject of animal-assisted therapy merited a reference book—which did not then exist—that would also include an extensive bibliography prepared with the help of the Carnegie-Whitney Award. I contacted several publishers and was fortunate to find Debbie Adams at Greenwood Publishing Company, now a division