Therapy Animals on Campus

Therapy Animals on Campus

A PROPOSAL FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ANIMAL

THERAPY AT NORTHUMBRIA

UNIVERSITY’S CITY CAMPUS

BY LINDSEY SMITH, SOCIOLOGY

UNDERGRADUATE

Myrationalefor the implementationof Therapy animalson campus:my own experiences

This research comes from the position of a neurodiverse student.

From 2007 onwards, I navigated the world with Chilli, my long Haired Chihuahua. While not trained as a therapy animal, Chilli was a motivating presence who greatly enhanced my well-being, enabling me to be more socially aware and responsible. Any positive experiences of being a sociology student at Northumbria University were equally met with challenges. However, Chilli was always there for me, as is my current pet chihuahua, Bruno.

What is neurodiversity?

The ‘Association for Physiological Sciences’ (2022) defines neurodiversity “as a nonpathological variation in the human brain that influences movement, sociability, learning, and/or attention, among other mental functions.”

Neurodiversity was first coined in 1998 by Judy Singer(Forbes, 2022). Autistic herself, Singer believed (Forbes, 2022) that the DSM’s definition of autism was “bleak” or, to put it in my own words, overly clinical. This assessment by Dr. Singer is something I agree with from my own experiences as someone with neurodiversity who is very nervous and risk-averse

A discussionof the“RiskSociety”andits Sociologicalimplications forneurodiversepeople

Within a Risk Society (Ekberg 2007), everything we do has major consequences for the “average” person. It is no wonder that the modern social sphere is tricky for neurodiverse people as the modern world becomes increasingly hard to navigate safely, even for neurotypicals.

According to research recorded by Gurbuz, Hanley and Riby (2018), their sample of 26 autistic students at Universities in the United Kingdom report a greater feeling of wanting to withdraw from their studies than neurotypical students. Something must change if neurodiversity is to be included in British academia.

Thechallengesof beinga Neurodiversestudentineducation

In no particular degree or order include….

Acoustics in classrooms

Executive dysfunction

Anxiety and Depression

Hyper-fixations

Underdeveloped social skills; hard to connect to peers

Can you relate to any of these traits?

TheAdvantagesof Animal TherapyPartOne

Charles and Wolkowitz (2018) recount that introducing therapy dogs on campus has a “calming effect, reducing reported levels of loneliness and increasing [university] studenthappiness”.

TheAdvantagesof AnimalTherapyPartTwo

Similarly, a study by Wijker, Leontejavas, Spek and Enders-Sledgers (2019) found that “animal-assisted therapy (AAT) with a dog reduced perceived stress and agoraphobia symptoms in adults with ASD.”

Combined, I feel that both studies show that, in theory, the implementation of animal therapy would benefit neurodiverse students on campus.

Thedisadvantagesof animaltherapy

Doesn’t account for allergies or fears caused by animals

Needs a lot of preparation work to ethically manage the resources involved

Can put the animals in undue stress if not handled effectively by their handlers

TheDemographics

of participantsin mysurvey

I found that my 7 seven participants were “aware of neurodiversity”, were 85.71% from Northumbria’s student body, and were women.

This does limit how conclusive my data is; however, I am happy with anyone who responded

TheData(GreenTherapy)

Within my primary data, each participant supported spending time in green areas as a way to relax. However, only 28.57 spent 4-6 hours per week outdoors, with the rest spending of the participants spending 1-3 hours.

This suggests that most of my participants desired more time outdoors than their work allowed. In addition, all of the participants used the three positive terms (positive, relaxing, helpful) rather than negative terms to describe using green areas to aid their mental health.

TheData(AnimalTherapy)

The majority of the participants (57.14%) listed that the idea of animal therapy was helpful, whereas 28.57% were indifferent, and 14.29% answered no. This suggests that animal therapy, while helpful, isn’t seen in the same good light as animals are an acquired taste.

Despite my pre-held notion that dogs would be more popular among those desiring animal therapy, I found that cats had a lead of one over dogs. This might suggest that cat therapy would be a better choice to implement than dog therapy in the aid of neurodiverse people.

The Question of Ethics

First, we must ask the question of the animal’s welfare. Dogs and cats gain attachment quite fast to their human carers, so should the interests of humans overtake the interests of these furry friends?

Animal therapy shouldn’t replace traditional forms of psychiatric help; rather, it should be used to supplement existing mental health services provided by the University or the NHS.

Nor should it serve as a replacement in the way of funding; the university must use additional funds and not just pull this important money from other helpful services used to help neurodiverse students

MyConclusion

In conclusion, I feel that both my primary and secondary research backs up my deeply held opinion that green and animal therapy would be wellsuited as a force for good on campus.

I should note that my passion for a collective love of the natural world, combined with my support for the rights of neurodiverse folk could be clouding my judgment. After all, I acknowledge that my bias could have affected the ethics of my primary research. Yet, my secondary research helps reinforce one vital point: that the natural world is key in aiding the development of neurodiverse students at Northumbria and other universities across the larger United Kingdom.

Special thanks too…

All students and staff that took part in the study’s questionnaire

My student support worker, Angela

Northumbria University’s staff

No animalswere harmed in this research, although a few were given positive attention

References 1/2

Azevedo, F., Middleton, S, Phan, J., Kapp, S., Gourdon-Kanhukamwe, A., Bethan, I., Elsherif, M., & Shaw, J. (2022) Navigating Academia as Neurodivergent Researchers: Promoting Neurodiversity Within Open Scholarship [online] available at: https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/gs-navigating-academiaas-neurodivergent-researchers#neurodiversity [accessed: 14/03/2023]

Charles, N. and Wolkowitz, C. (2018) ‘Bringing dogs onto campus: Inclusions and exclusions of animal bodies in organizations’ Gender, Work & Organization, 26(3), pp. 303-321 available at:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gwao.12254?casa_token=FOmP8ya8UFkAAAAA%3AA1R5 o31Ja__-r_vYUY6jbVo_ovArrbh5ORG74m8PufU9TT28La2mDs1rDTKMD35JSnkNidDcKPKfFA[accessed 21/03/2023]

Doyle, N. (2022) Hidden Figures In Neurodiversity: Judy Singer? [online] available at:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/drnancydoyle/2022/08/26/hidden-figures-in-neurodiversity-judysinger/?sh=65c090696544 [accessed: 14/03/2023]

References 2/2

Ekberg, M (2007) ‘The Parameters of the Risk Society’ Current Sociology, 55(3): 343–366 available at:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0011392107076080?casa_token=11JfBSVqwFAA AAAA:8d9XRPoE6mIUsMr5QA71EtO66fBy93NlOAJOdu03FAfOY5qBN728rGSXzT1MQ0xbZrJaSANT BpFB (accessed: 04/04/2023)

Gurbuz, E. Hanley D., Riby,D. (2018) ‘University Students with Autism: The Social and Academic Experiences of University in the UK’ Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 49:617–631, available at: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10803-018-3741-4.pdf (accessed 14/04/2023)

Wijker, C. Leontejavas, R., A, Spek. and M-J, Enders-Sledgers. (2019) ‘Effects of Dog Assisted Therapy for Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Exploratory Randomized Controlled Trial’, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 50 (2153-2161) available at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10803-019-03971-9#Sec8 [accessed 21/03/2023]