Post by Ione Maria Rojas
I am thrilled and excited to have been awarded a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship 2015 to research international animal-assisted therapy projects.
The Trust awards fellowships every year to British Citizens to enable them to travel abroad and research areas of interest that can help us tackle current social issues back here in the UK. It is an honour and a joy to have been awarded a fellowship this year, the 50th anniversary of Churchill’s death, and with the US stage of my trip only weeks away, my excitement is growing every day…
Read on to find out details of my research proposal and for regular updates follow @WeAreFurryTales and keep checking our news page.
Fellowship Title: ELDERS’ CARE AND ANIMALS: DEVELOPING A SUSTAINABLE MODEL FOR CHANGE
OBJECTIVES
- To gain a deeper understanding of how animals can be incorporated into residential care to improve quality of life
- To learn how well-established and successful animal-assisted programmes select and train their animals
- To understand essential criteria for volunteer training programmes for animal-assisted therapy work
- To use the above to improve and expand the delivery of animal-assisted activities by Furry Tales in London
- To establish Furry Tales as a platform in London for sharing knowledge and experience of animal-assisted interactions with other providers and interested parties
SCHEDULE
STAGE 1: APRIL-MAY 2015, USA
- Human-Animal Interaction Conference 2015
- Green Chimneys, New York – Helping Kids with Emotional, Behavioural and Social Challenges
- Animal Assisted Therapy Services, Connecticut
- Soul Friends, Connecticut – Key players in the passing of the 2013 Animal-Assisted Therapy Bill
- Tails of Joy, Connecticut – Pet visitation programme, also involved in the AAT Bill
- Life Care Centre of Nashoba Valley, Massachusetts – Residential home with a llama visitation programme
- Friendship Works, Massachusetts – Boston-based project using animals to combat social isolation in elders
- Briarwood Residential Home and Rehabilitation Centre, Massachusetts – Registered Eden Alternative home
- Pets for Life, Missouri – Part of an ongoing study with ReCHAI on pet visitation programmes
- ReCHAI, Missouri – Research Center for Human-Animal Interactions – Visits arranged at connected prison dog training program, therapeutic hoseback riding study with military veterans, and AAA visit and pet ownership facilitation program at TigerPlace retirement residence
- Atlantic Health Systems, New Jersey – Health care system with a strong commitment to AAT
STAGE 2: OCTOBER 2015, ISRAEL
Exact schedule tbc
- Daphna-Golan Shemesh, Tel-Aviv – Pioneer in developing world’s first dementia dogs and introducing animals into residential elders’ care
- Dr Yoni Yehuda, Jerusalem – PhD in Psychology, AAT expert and Founder of Havayot Center
If you have any questions about my trip or any of the places I’m visiting, please use the Contact page.