To become a pet therapy professional it is important to take specific courses that introduce you to a fascinating and engaging profession. Ideal for those who love animals and want to work with them.
Pet therapy – literally "therapy with animals" – is used in a variety of intervention settings and with different user groups, both for children and adolescents with certain problems, and in hospitals, for elderly people and people with disabilities.
It can have therapeutic, rehabilitative, educational and recreational value, and involves the participation of domestic animals that meet certain health and behavioural requirements. Among the animals currently recognised are the dog, the horse, the donkey, the cat and the rabbit. Interventions are aimed at any type of user, predominantly people with physical, neuromotor, mental and psychological disorders, but not exclusively.
It is precisely because of this progressive and unstoppable spread that in Italy the need arose to regulate the training of professionals and project protocols. Today, to become a professional in animal-assisted interventions (Iaa), commonly known as "pet therapy", it is necessary to attend specific courses, master's programmes offered exclusively by universities, or to attend courses run by training bodies accredited by the regions.
The Ministry of Health, with the aim of promoting research, standardising operational protocols and strengthening collaboration between human and veterinary medicine, established in June 2009 the Crn, the National Reference Centre for animal-assisted interventions in pet therapy, and began an intensive period of work that concluded with the approval on 25 March 2015 of the State, Regions and Autonomous Provinces Agreement on the National guidelines for animal-assisted interventions (Iaa).
The Iaa expert is now a new type of emerging professional whose training is strictly regulated and monitored: "This is a profession that has experienced a real boom in recent years, and there was a need for regulation to protect users and the welfare of the animals involved," explains Elena Sposito, professional educator.
"Today, work in this field is carried out exclusively within multiprofessional teams made up of figures specifically trained in Iaa. We have the veterinary surgeon, the project manager, the intervention coordinator and the animal co-handler: all with specific training in pet therapy. Courses cover the preparation of each member of the Iaa team both for Taa/Eaa (animal-assisted therapy and educational activities) and for Aaa (animal-assisted activities). In these cases each figure follows a specific training pathway."
To find out in detail about the training pathway for each figure, you can read the dedicated Crn booklet
For those who come with prior training and experience dating before 25 March 2015, it is necessary to initiate an assessment of the preceding pathway and to compile detailed documentation to be sent to the Crn or to the scientific secretariats of the training bodies offering Iaa courses. Another welcome development in this field also comes from the Crn and the Ministry of Health, with the Digital pet project, which aims to create national registers of professional figures, practitioners, specialist centres, recognised facilities, and Taa and Eaa projects.
"Today the aim of the courses is to train professionals who are capable of providing the best possible assistance to users and of safeguarding animal welfare – Sposito notes –, but also of preparing people who are able to interact correctly as a team, with the goal of achieving optimal results." In this regard, there are very valid courses in various regions of Italy, precisely because the national guidelines have aimed to standardise training in Iaa. University master's degrees and those offered by training bodies accredited with the Regions offer, in this sense, secure pathways from the point of view of professional training.
"My work, for example, takes place in Milan at the cooperative Tempo per l'infanzia – Elena Sposito continues – which runs projects of a mainly educational nature. The cooperative has also been providing training since 2011, focusing primarily on the training of expert co-operators working with dogs, cats and rabbits. We were, for example, among the first to believe in cats and to train co-operators capable of working with these animals. Lombardy incorporated the national guidelines in May 2016, and we are working towards increasingly comprehensive and professional courses together with the training body Cesvip, which is accredited with the Region."
Animal-assisted therapeutic activities are fully part of the field of "co-therapies" and are directed at users who present specific problems and disabilities. Taa interventions are analysed and evaluated by psychologists or doctors who are expert in Iaa, in order to identify specific needs and develop a targeted programme for each issue.
Each animal is indicated for carrying out specific activities by a veterinary doctor on the team, and in order to help patients achieve – through teamwork – specific objectives. Dogs, for example, are ideal for all those activities involving play, sensory stimulation and collaboration that, in general, contribute to stimulation and rehabilitation.
Every activity, therefore, has its own planned and structured characteristics and practitioners must have a perfect knowledge of the different types of activity and of the users they work with. Becoming a member of a pet therapy team always entails a great deal of responsibility, but also great satisfaction — especially for those who want to work with animals and, through them, reach people in difficult situations and socially vulnerable individuals.
"It is important to send your CV to associations and cooperatives that have been operating in the sector for several years and that guarantee a multi-professional team," concludes Sposito. To succeed in entering the job market and being connected with professionals in one's own region, for example, one can turn to We Animal, the social promotion association founded in 2004 that brings together, in a truly cooperative spirit, the professionals working in the field of pet therapy. Like every other discipline grounded in a correct relationship with the animal world, pet therapy is thus discovering new horizons and diverse applications, reaffirming an ever closer and more important bond between humankind and the surrounding environment. And revisiting ancient knowledge that has accompanied us for centuries.