Adapting Animal-Assisted Therapy Trials to Prison-Based Animal Programs.
Prison-based animal programs have shown promise when it comes to increased sociability, responsibility, and levels of patience for inmates who participate in these programs. Yet there remains a dearth of scientific research that demonstrates the impact of prison-based animal programs on inmates' physical and mental health. Trials of animal-assisted therapy interventions, a form of human-animal interaction therapy most often used with populations affected by depression/anxiety, mental illness, and trauma, may provide models of how prison-based animal program research can have widespread implementation in jail and prison settings, whose populations have high rates of mental health problems. This paper reviews the components of prison-based animal programs most commonly practiced in prisons today, presents five animal-assisted therapy case studies, evaluates them based on their adaptability to prison-based animal programs, and discusses the institutional constraints that act as barriers for rigorous prison-based animal program research implementation. This paper can serve to inform the development of a research approach to animal-assisted therapy that nurses and other public health researchers can use in working with correctional populations.
Department of Preventive Medicine & Public Health, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas. mallison2@kumc.edu.
Molly
M
Allison
Department of Preventive Medicine & Public Health, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas.
Megha
M
Ramaswamy
D056447:Animal Assisted Therapy; D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D011329:Prisoners / Q000523:psychology*; D011330:Prisons; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
animal-assisted therapy; jail; mental health; prison