Page 18 - The Sloughi Review - Issue 10

T H E S L O U G H I R E V I E W
Ullis Sundell:
Abnormal reactions to sensory impressions
such as audio, tactile and visual
information is common for people with
autism. Do you see any particular benefit
from using animals in their stimulus
training?
Gabriella Incisa di Camerana: We have
developed, among other things, a method
which is in the scientific validation phase,
so we have evaluation sheets which follow,
step by step, either the interventions
carried out or the results obtained for the
IAAs.
The old term 'zootherapy' is still used to
designate a whole series of interactions
with animals, more or less complex, aimed
at the care, rehabilitation, education and
promotion of the well-being and quality of
life of people. These different
diversifications are now divided into
activities or AAA (animal assisted activities),
education or EAA and animal-assisted
therapy or TAA and together constitute
animal-assisted interventions (IAA),
according to the "National Guidelines for
Animal-Assisted Interventions of the Italian
Ministry of Health".
The animals involved in the IAA belong to
domestic species to which the term "Pet" or
companion animal refers. The process of
domestication has been fundamental to the
evolutionary path of man and the
relationship with pets represents the
legacy deriving from the long-shared
evolutionary history.
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In the context of IAAs, the relationship with
the animal should not be evaluated in terms
of performance, as happens in breeding, but
for the "contributions to change" of the
person. The animal must be considered as
otherness, respected as subject and as
different or in other words as "relationship
partner", avoiding both its exploitation and
its anthropomorphizing (which is the
tendency to attribute human physical or
psychological characteristics to beings
other than humans).
The relationship must be built on the full
knowledge of the characteristics of the
species and the individuality of the animals
and must result in an act of full
responsibility on the part of the people who
promote it.
Interventions assisted with animals (IAAs),
to be beneficial, cannot be implemented in a
generic way because, above all, the animal
is not "caregiver" as such and, on the other
hand, the relationship with it does not
automatically bring benefits to the person.
This simplistic vision risks compromising
the application potential of the human-
animal relationship and sometimes even
giving rise to anything but positive effects
for the patient.
IAAs can only make improvements if they
adapt to the special needs of each patient,
in their specificity, pathological or not and
biographical, and therefore only by
developing relational activities that are
coherent and synergistic with the objectives
set.