Animal-Assisted Interventions in Health Care Settings: A Best Practices Manual for Establishing New Programs

Growing literature around the benefits ofanimal-assisted intervention (AAI) spurs health care professionals andadministrators to start new programs. Yet the trend also raises questions ofhow 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 BestPractices Manual for Establishing New Programs succinctly outlines how best to develop, implement, run, andevaluate AAI programs. Drawing on extensive professional experiences andresearch from more than fifteen years leading the Center for Human-AnimalInteraction in the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, theauthors discuss both best practices and best reasons for establishing AAIprograms. For thorough consideration, the text explores benefits from a varietyof perspectives, including how AAI can improve patient experience, provideadditional career development for staff, and contribute favorably toorganizational culture as well as to the reputation of the facility in thesurrounding community. Developed for administrators as well as forvolunteers and staff, Animal-AssistedInterventions in Health Care Settings includes practical, case-basedexamples for easy comprehension and offers user-friendly templates that can beadapted to develop practice-specific training, evaluation, and proceduremanuals.