Animal-assisted Therapy Improves Cognitive and Emotion in Nursing Home Residents

Animal-assisted Therapy Improves Cognitive and Emotion in Nursing Home Residents

More than 80% of the residents of the investigator's nursing home are dementia, who are often mentally and emotionally unstable. The staff need to spend time helping to eliminate problems. The investigator assume that non-drug intervention measures can be added, such as the Animal-assisted Therapy (AAT). The hypothesis for ATT is expected to improve the mental and emotional inappropriate manifestations of dementia, reduce interfering behaviors, improve the quality of life, reduce the use of inappropriate mental drugs, and expect residents to delay the degradation of physiological functions.

Nursing homes in the investigator's country accept dementia residents usually. The dementia residents often suffer from mental and emotional problems. Then they used drugs to improve the mental and emotional conditions. There were many studies about non-drug treatments ,such as: gardening, nostalgia, pets, and other interventions were improved for the mental and emotional to dementia residents.Well-trained therapy dogs exhibit the behavior that human patients construe as friendly and welcoming.AAT dogs are also required to possess a calm temperament for accommodating the contact with unfamiliar clients while they serve as a source of comfort. In domestic observational studies, non-pharmaceutical interventions for people with dementia who have activities and the hypothesis for ATT can improve the quality of care for dementia, reduce the use of mentally inappropriate drugs, and delay the degree of degeneration. Recent evidence has shown that nursing institutions with dementia arranged weekly activities with AAT for a period of 6 months. Significant improvement was in social interaction, emotional expression, and behavioral and psychological symptoms.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Residents of long-term care homes
• No fear or allergy to dogs
• Wheelchair accessible persons
• Able to communicate in Mandarin and Taiwanese
• Agree to sign the subject consent form

Exclusion Criteria:

• Non-residents of nursing homes
• Fear and allergy to dogs
• Bedridden and wheelchair users
• Do not agree to sign the subject consent form

Note: Although many nursing home residents have symptoms of dementia, many have not been diagnosed by a doctor, so dementia and other related diseases cannot be included in the inclusion or exclusion criteria.