Therapy dog ​​helps patients in psychiatry

Animal Therapist: Joschi helps patients

02/10/2015

It has been known for a long time that pets serve well as soul comforters and therapists. For example, dogs are used for therapy in various diseases such as depression or dementia. In a Berlin psychiatry Labrador Joschi now works as an animal therapist.

Helper on four paws
Animals can have a tremendously positive impact on people's well-being. Also as helpers on four paws, they have been known for some time. As reported by the dpa news agency, the Psychiatry of the Vivantes Clinics in Berlin now has a therapy companion dog. The brown Labrador Joschi works there as an animal therapist, also in the closed ward. When the dog wants to go to work in the morning, he puts on his clothes - a light harness made of cloth - Annika Jänsch wagging her tail at her feet. Once the dog wears it, he knows the job is starting.

Team for animal assisted therapies
The 29-year-old occupational therapist Annika Jänsch works in the Wenckebach-Klinikum in the district Tempelhof. Together with Joschi, she completed one-year additional training in January and now has a certificate that the two are a team for animal-assisted therapies. The three-year-old dog had to learn a lot for working in psychiatry, especially serenity, no matter what. According to dpa, he has good genes for this property, since his parents have both been trained as a therapy companion dogs at the Charité.

Only a few „animal therapists“ in Berlin
„Animal therapists“ are currently the exception at Berlin clinics. Jänsch said that there are only three such dogs at the nine Vivantes clinics. However, the effect that can be achieved by the four-legged friends, is already well known from nursing homes or dementia housing communities. There they are a welcome change for patients and improve the mood. Ms. Jänsch has already selected Joschi as a puppy, because she found the therapy concept convincing even for psychiatry: With his dog-glance, Joschi can reach people who otherwise do not like to cultivate contacts. In exceptional cases, he may even lie on the bed and cuddle up to patients who have no one else left. As the therapist informed, the clinic supported her idea from the beginning.

Unusual behavior does not deter the dog
Straight from the house, Joschi has already tapped through the hospital corridors at the age of four months and has become accustomed to hospital beds, wheelchairs, crutches and the various smells and sounds in a hospital. joschi „is working“ - unlike guide dogs, which are marked on masters or mistresses - with all people who want this. „He has a seventh sense for that“, so Jänsch. It is said that the Labrador is considerate of those who are tense or anxious. On the other hand, schizophrenic or depressive patients who like dogs or a rather uncommon behavior of patients did not frighten him. The offer to play with the dog, to pet it or just to look at it applies to all patients of open and closed psychiatry stations. The therapist can hardly save herself from inquiries. Geriatrics has also reported, but Joschi should be there for the mentally ill. The dog enjoys his time when Jänsch takes his dishes off in the evening. She said: „He is often completely k.o.“

Dogs are good for human health
For health reasons, there are many more good reasons to surround yourself with dogs. So the four-legged friends are ideal exercise trainers, as health experts say. Since dog owners are automatically stopped to a minimum of movement, statistically they reduce the risk of high blood pressure and thus also of a heart attack or stroke. In addition, dealing with the animals reduces stress and anxiety. But dogs can do much more. Studies have shown that they can sometimes sniff lung or colon cancer. Specially trained diabetic dogs can also detect hypoglycaemia in people with diabetes. (Ad)