Animal-Assisted Interventions in Health Care Settings

<p>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 circumstanceswith what staff and within what guidelines. </p><p><i>Animal-Assisted Interventions in Health Care Settings: A BestPractices Manual for Establishing New Programs</i> succinctly outlines how best to develop implement run andevaluate AAI programs. Drawing on extensive professional experiences andresearch from more than fifteen years of 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 and to the reputation of the facility in thesurrounding community.<br></p><p>Developed for administrators as well as forvolunteers and staff <i>Animal-AssistedInterventions in Health Care Settings</i> includes practical case-basedexamples for easy comprehension and offers an accompanyingonline user-friendly template that can beadapted to develop practice-specific training evaluation and proceduremanuals.<br></p>