HOW ANIMAL THERAPY CAN HELP TBI SURVIVORS

Animal-assisted therapy, or AAT, is just what it sounds like — animals facilitating healing and rehabilitation. AAT is different from animal visitation programs, when animals visit facilities with their owners. Animals used for AAT are specially trained and can be owned by the patient or the therapist themselves.

The benefits of animal-assisted therapy are large and diverse. Just as each rehabilitation case is unique and requires its own form of rehabilitation medicine and rehabilitation plan, each relationship between animal and patient brings its own results. Some benefits of AAT include improved fine motor skills and balance, reduced blood pressure and risk of heart attack or stroke, increased self-esteem and ability to take care of oneself, improved social skills, focus, and attention, increased empathy, trust, and teamwork, reduced stress, anxiety, grief, and isolation.

After a traumatic brain injury, people often suffer from problems with social interaction. For example, they may have difficulty interpreting facial expressions, tone of voice, or other forms of emotional processing. Many victims of TBIs experience personality changes, which causes stress in relationships and their social life. Family and loved ones often describe a lack of warmth, love, and connection after the traumatic injury and that symptom places a large burden on the relationship.

Animals can help TBI patients learn to reconnect with others in a lower-stakes environment. Animals can teach people that no matter what they’re feeling or how they’re reacting, they are worthy of love and belonging. Animals can also be a mediator between the patient and the people they are interacting with. Dogs are also used to assist individuals with mobility issues and can be trained to carry personal items or assist their partner in other ways.

More so, the presence of an animal calms the nervous system and helps with moderating reactions to stimuli. Individuals with severe brain injury often have little control over their lives, and owning an animal of any kind can be an opportunity to have control over at least one part of their lives. Animals also have a calming effect for stroke victims and nonverbal individuals.