Animal-Assisted Services 101, Part 3: Bringing Services to Your Organization

Whitney Romine, M.P.H., C-AAIS, KPA-CTP
Animal-Assisted Services Manager
Mayo Clinic Rochester

Introduction

In Part 1 of this blog series, you learned about animal-assisted services, including a summary of the research, benefits, risks, and ways to keep everyone safe during human-animal interactions. In Part 2, you saw it all come together through a moment of connection in a real-life story of impact. Now you’re ready to start your own program. The following guide will help you get started.

Tips to Take the Lead in Animal-Assisted Services

1. Do a Perimeter Check: Review existing literature on healthcare and animal-assisted services professional standards of practice and competencies.
2. Catch the Scent: Conduct a needs assessment in your workplace to determine care needs and opportunities, narrow down a list of feasible units to start.
3. Pick up the Trail: Physically go to identified locations to plan where teams can and cannot go, signpost available resources, and map out hazards and safety supports.
4. Organize the Paw-perwork: Design or update policies and procedures that balance patient, animal handler and animal safety and well-being, define what department and staff will “own” the program and what resources they will use to do it.
5. Find your Champions: Engage multidisciplinary stakeholders to build support and challengers to spot gaps; consider collaborators from both clinical and administrative perspectives to account for the patient care and business elements in your leadership proposal.
6. Prepare for the Path Ahead: Reach out to local therapy dog organizations to recruit qualified teams; encourage them to apply and interview them with your staff; consult with local therapy dog evaluators or dog trainers if you need additional insight to determine if a team is a good fit for your facility.
7. Choose the Route: Start small and scale up slowly, choose one lobby or one patient care unit, or start with one animal handler team; this allows time to get used to procedural flow and serves as the proof-of-concept that inspires others to join.
8. Check the Trail Markers: Gather data through multiple means (survey, observation) to assess operational successes and challenges, lessons learned, and memorable moments.
9. Blaze New Paths: Expand your team roster, explore new units, and invest in staffing, education, credentialing, and resources to ensure high-quality implementation and outcomes.

Closing

Animal-Assisted Services programs are complex and require a careful, methodical approach to implement safely. By integrating professional standards and competencies, field and setting-specific guidance, internal and external feedback, and following the data, you can build a program that maximizes the benefits of human-animal bond and minimizes risks.

Learn more here from Mayo Clinic: Developing and Sustaining Animal-Assisted Services at a Tertiary Medical Center: A Qualitative Study – ScienceDirect.
 

Links to Relevant Resources

Don’t start your program from scratch! These organizations provide foundations you can build on.

Standards of Practice and Competencies

• Animals in Healthcare Facilities – Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA)
• Animal Assisted Services International – Program Standards and Competencies
• Association of Animal-Assisted Intervention Professionals (AAAIP) – Practitioner Competencies for the Ethical Inclusion of Animals and Standards of Practice for AAI

General Education

• Division 17, Section 13 of the American Psychological Association – Human-Animal Interaction

Animal-Handler Team Credentialing

• Association of Animal-Assisted Intervention Professionals (AAAIP) Therapy Animal Certification & Animal Professional (Job-Related) Program)
• Pet Partners Therapy Dog Registration & Animal Volunteer Program
• Alliance of Therapy Dogs Certification & Dog Volunteer Program