Questioning “Fluffy”: A Dog's Eye View of Animal-Assisted Interventions (AAI) in the Treatment of Substance Misuse

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Notes

¹ “The One Health concept is a worldwide strategy for expanding interdisciplinary collaborations and communications in all aspects of health care for humans, animals and the environment” (One Health Initiative). It is rooted in “comparative medicine” of the 19th century, and more recently what Calvin Schwabe termed “one medicine.”

² Concepts representing such processes as treatment engagement/alliance and treatment adherence/compliance are often used in the literature without adequately noting their dimensions (linear, nonlinear), their “demands,” the critical conditions (inner and external ones, including relevant needed resources) which are necessary for any of them to operate (begin, continue, become anchored and integrate, change as de facto realities change, cease, etc.), and their underpinnings (theory-driven, empirically based, individual and/or systemic stake holder-bound, based upon “principles of faith,” etc.). They are commonly related only to the identified patient and do not consider the treatment agent, whoever they are, or the agency.

³ Treatment can be briefly and usefully defined as a unique, planned, goal directed, temporally structured, multidimensional change process, of necessary quality, appropriateness and conditions (endogenous and exogenous), which is bounded (culture, place, time, etc.), associated with a range of stakeholders with agendas, and can be categorized into professional-based, tradition-based, mutual-help based (AA,NA, etc.) and self-help (“natural recovery”) models. There are no unique models or techniques used with substance users–-of whatever types and heterogeneities-–which aren't also used with nonsubstance users. Whether or not a treatment technique is indicated or contra-indicated, and what are its selection underpinnings (theory-based, empirically based, “principle of faith-based,” tradition-based, etc.) continues to be a generic and key treatment issue. In the West, with the relatively new ideology of “harm reduction” and the even newer Quality of Life (QOL) and wellbeing treatment-driven models there are now new sets of goals in addition to those derived from/associated with the older tradition of abstinence driven models. Conflict-resolution models may stimulate an additional option for intervention. Each ideological model has its own criteria for success as well as failure as well as iatrogenic-related harms. Treatment is implemented in a range of environments; ambulatory as well as within institutions which can include controlled environments. Treatment includes a spectrum of clinician-caregiver-patient relationships representing various forms of decision-making traditions/models; (1) the hierarchical model in which the clinician-treatment agent makes the decision(s) and the recipient is compliant and relatively passive, (2) shared decision-making which facilitates the collaboration between clinician and patient(s) in which both are active, and (3) the “informed model” in which the patient makes the decision(s). Editor's note.

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Notes on contributors

Anna-Belle

Anna-Belle is a St. John Ambulance Therapy dog living in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. She is a 3-year-old bulldog who has a passion for people, nature, and skateboarding.

Colleen Anne Dell

Colleen Anne Dell, PhD, Canada, is Professor and Research Chair in Substance Abuse at the University of Saskatchewan in the Department of Sociology and School of Public Health. She is also a Senior Research Associate with the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse. Her research program is grounded in an empowering, community-based participatory approach and draws upon her extensive front-line experience in the field.