Episode Transcript
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Detached audio (00:01):
Welcome to animals and aquatics I'm Gina,
your host.
And I'm an occupationaltherapist, a sleep deprived, mom
of three, and a lover of allthings nature based.
Today, we're going to discusssome important skills when
incorporating animals into youroccupational therapy sessions.
And how to gain these skills, alittle bit about me or my
background.
I'm an occupational therapistworking in a nature based
(00:24):
private practice, incorporatinganimals and aquatics into my
practice.
I've worked with many animals inoccupational therapy, including
horses, alpacas, goats,chickens, and a bearded dragon
named Suki.
For many sessions, I have horsehandlers or horse handlers that
(00:44):
are assisting me, but I've alsobeen the handler who is working
directly with the animal andwith the client.
And it's important to befamiliar with the animals that
we're working with and the teammembers that have knowledge of
the animals.
I've worked in a nonprofit,early intervention settings,
(01:06):
outpatient pediatrics, andcurrently I teach as an adjunct
occupational therapy professorin an OTA program for pediatrics
and mental health.
Why did I think we needed torecord this episode?
My fieldwork student actuallyasked about getting started.
And how did I kind of find myway?
(01:27):
I thought that was a reallyimportant story to share.
And I thought it was importantto look at some of the key
skills.
And I've been reviewing theanimal assisted intervention
specialist certification, and inthe certification, it gives a
pretty good guideline or outlineof some of the key skills that
(01:47):
an occupational therapist who'sgoing to partner with animals
should have.
So I thought this would be anexcellent opportunity to review
those skills, different ways togain those skills and how you
could start to gear yourexperience as a student or as a
new practitioner towards workingwith animals, with your clients
and what do you need to know?
(02:08):
So in some of the core skillsthat you should have, one of
them is understanding animalbehavior.
And it's really important thatyou're familiar with the animal
or the animal species thatyou're going to work with.
So each species is a little bitdifferent that you are going to
work with.
Alpacas, goats and horses areall herd animals.
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They're all prey animals.
But the handling requirementsand they way that they react to
things are all very different.
So understanding what stressbehaviors look like in an alpaca
is definitely different thanunderstanding what stress
behaviors look like in a horse.
So when we're thinking aboutwhat those stress behaviors look
like in a horse, I might seetail switching; I might see uh,
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pinning of the ears, reluctanceto move forward.
In an alpaca, it could besomething like Cushing.
So when a alpaca cushes, thatmeans they lied down.
So sometimes that's a stressresponse.
And an alpaca that asfrightened, they may vocalize.
So knowing what those stressresponses look like is an
important skill to have.
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Knowing what activeparticipation of the animal is,
is a key skill.
And so an animal that isinterested in working with you
in your occupational therapysession is key.
And our goats love to be activeparticipants in our therapy
sessions.
They're very inquisitive andinteractive.
They're going to approach theclient.
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So those types of behaviors arethings that I'm looking for,
especially when selecting andworking with the animal.
But then also during thesession, you know, sometimes
animals have bad days too.
And I'm looking for some ofthose behaviors that show me
that the, goat or the chickenwants to be there and wants to
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be part of this interaction.
The occupational therapyprovider needs to be able to
recognize animal stress andfatigue.
During the interaction.
So if the animal is gettingtired of the interaction, tired
of the therapy session, tired ofthe way that the client is
interacting, we need to be ableto step in and intervene.
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So that is a key skill that ouroccupational therapy providers
we're going to partner withanimals, needs to have, and then
the risk factors.
So each animal species that wework with has different risk
factors, involve horses are bigand strong and powerful, and
there are significant riskfactors.
Goats are smaller and our goatsare de-horned so disbudded.
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They don't have horns.
So that limits one risk factor.
And we said one of my fears withgoats, if they do have their
horns,'cause we had some thathad horns that were extremely
social and would have made goodtherapy, goat counterparts, but
with their horns I was alwaysafraid of some person bending
(05:03):
over to pet them and the goat,bringing their head up suddenly
like, oh, what's that?
And catching someone with theirhorns.
Like not even intentionally.
Doing anything with the horns,but just that, that would be a
risk factor.
Alpacas have soft toes.
So if they were to kick, theyhave soft toes.
They don't have upper teeth.
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So they can't bite in the sameway that a dog could bite.
So knowing what each animal'srisk factors are.
Are a component of knowing thoseanimal behaviors.
Now.
That's the animal part, but thenwhen we put the animal and the
client together, there's aninteraction piece.
(05:44):
Right.
So how do you screen the clientsthat are going to be part of
your occupational therapysession, where you are
incorporating animals, knowingwhat factors to screen for and
how you're going to look at thatpartnership between the client
and the animal.
Like when is it going to be agood fit?
When is it reallytherapeutically beneficial for
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an animal to be part of theoccupational therapy session?
When is it going to help thatclient move towards more more
quickly or help them accomplishmore skills or help them feel
safe.
So screening the clients is akey skill that we need to
develop and having a system inplace is really important
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because it allows us asoccupational therapy providers
to be fair with who is havingthe interactions.
If we have a larger caseload orwe work in a bigger practice uh
deciding who is going to beinvolved at the stable and be
using hippotherapy or who isgoing to be part of a group
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where the therapy goats arecoming.
That's really important thatthere are some set criteria in a
way that we screen clients.
But we also want to make sureit's a benefit to the client.
That it's just not somethingelse that we're throwing into
the session or something that iskind of a requirement for every
session, because in somesessions it may not be
beneficial or it may not help usmove towards our occupational
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therapy goals.
So we're looking at what is thatrisk?
What is the benefit and how isit going to help the client move
along?
How has this interaction withthe animal going to help the
client move along towards theirgoal.
As the leading therapist oroccupational therapy assistant,
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who's leading the OT session, weneed to be able to manage the
roles that the client and theanimal play.
And if you are the handler forthe animal, you are really
managing dual roles.
You're needing to be there as asupport person for the animal
you're needing to manage theanimals behaviors, but then you
also need to be there for theclient and helping the client
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feel safe and be sensoryregulated and gain the skills
that they need to reach theirgoals.
And sometimes there can be a bitof a conflict between where the
animal is at and where theclient is at.
So being able to manage both ofthose roles is really a key
skill.
And then communication.
Communication to the animal, tothe client and to the handler.
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So often when I'm teachingothers about hippotherapy, I say
it's really like being dual ortrilingual lingual, because we
need to be able to speak horselanguage to our horse handlers.
We need to be able tocommunicate to the client in a
way that is client centered.
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So if I'm working with children,it has to be child-friendly.
And then I may need to eithercommunicate to the parent or to
other people on the team memberin a more clinical way or a
parent friendly way.
So being able to switch betweenall those dialects is really
important.
But when we're communicatingdirectly to the animal, if we
need to give the animal acommand.
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So if I want a goat to jump up,right, I need to be able to give
them the command to come up.
And I want them to know thatthat's an expectation for them,
which is different than what I'mcommunicating to the client.
So when we're thinking aboutincorporating animals into our
sessions, we're looking at thatfunctional outcome and basing
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our knowledge and our skills ofthose functional outcomes and
then translating the interactionwith the animal or the
bio-psychosocial response frominput, from a movement
experience, from an animal likea horse into that functional
outcome.
That is a key component ofclinical reasoning.
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For an occupational therapyprovider to have, when you're
thinking of partnering withanimals is understanding what
the client is going to get fromthat interaction and then being
able to translate it into howdoes that get that client closer
to the goals.
So you're adapting theinteraction or the input from
the animal to the needs of theclient.
(10:10):
And as a pediatric OT, there aremany ways to address ADL's,
education, play through theseinteractions with animals.
And then additionally, from amental health perspective, we
can incorporate animals as animportant component to
addressing our client's mentalhealth.
So as OTs are really good ataddressing health and wellness,
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this partnering with animalsreally can be a very good fit.
Another key area for skills theoccupational therapy providers
should have before they decidedto partner with animals is
understanding the health andsafety component.
So what are potential risks tothe client?
So with horses, we know thatthere could be a risk of being
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kicked.
Being bitten being stepped on.
If the client is on the horseand experiencing the movement of
the horse, there's a risk of afall.
So for each animal species thatwe work with, we need to know
what those risks are to theclient.
And we need to decide if thoserisks can be mitigated and in
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which ways can they bemitigated?
And the component with that thenis then what is the benefit?
What are the risks to theanimal?
Based on the type of interactionthat we're going to partner
between the animal and theclient, what are the risks to
the animals?
So we, I mentioned stress alittle bit, but there are other
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risks.
Some of the clientele that Iwork with are prone to having
outbursts and that can bepsychologically stressful for
the animal, but it also could bephysically stressful for the
animal.
We can think about things thatchildren just don't know any
better.
And although we're very close,in supervising and, being there
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for the client and the animalthere is just that like
momentary thing where a clientis like, Ooh, let me touch the
eyeball.
And that is a risk to theanimal, is as an adult and we
wouldn't go up and we wouldn'ttouch or poke an animal in the
eye, but a child may do that andthey may not even do it to be
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hurtful.
They may just be curious and notunderstand the effect that's
going to have.
On animals that are morefragile, like chickens and
rabbits, children can be roughand that's one of the things
that we're really cautious aboutwhen we have interactions with
the bearded dragon, he's veryeasy to handle and the children
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very much like to be able tohold him or put them put him on
their shoulder, but if the childwere to become frightened
because the bearded dragon movedor if they are just done with
holding him and they're unableto communicate that and they
drop him, that would be a riskto him.
So being able to mitigate thoserisks as much as possible.
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The occupational therapyprovider should be aware either
in charge of, or able to overseecare and grooming of the animal.
So you may not be responsiblefor all of the functions of
caring for, and grooming theanimal, but you should be aware
of what it takes to do so.
What is correct what that animalshould look like when they are
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in good health and well groomed.
And what needs to be done ifthat's not happening.
So who on the therapy team needsto be in charge of that.
Who do you need to speak with?
Do you need to speak with anequine or a barn manager?
Do you need to speak with thehandler that's volunteering and
bringing that animal to yoursession is the animal having
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some sort of health issue inwhich they shouldn't be
participating in youroccupational therapy sessions
until that issue is resolved?
And that kind of leads us to thenext component of health and
safety, which are zoonoticinfections and knowing what can
be transmitted from an animal toa client is super important for
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any occupational therapyprovider.
That's going to partner withanimals.
It's an absolute must skill.
You must know what couldpotentially be transmitted from
the animal to a client and howto prevent it.
And we just want to give anexample from goats.
So with goats, they getsomething called orf, O R F,
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it's a viral infection and itcauses like blistering and
lesions around the face and themouth.
It's really yucky.
And it can be transmitted tohumans.
So we always say don't ever kissyour goats because if they were
to get orf, you could get it andyou will get the same blisters
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around your face and mouth.
It is not pretty.
And you do not want orf.
So that's something that can betransmitted from goat to human.
When we know it as a ringwormand it's a fungal skin
infection, it's fairly common.
It's in animals.
You can see it in, in goats andhorses, and it's made in a round
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shape, which is why it's calledringworm and, but it's actually
fungal and it can be transmittedfrom the animal to the human.
Again, it's transmitted both bydirect contact.
So both orf and ringworm aretransmitted from direct contact
with an infected animal.
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And so again, that's why it's soimportant for the health and
safety of our clients and ouranimals.
That if we are partnering withanimals, we have a good
understanding of those healthand safety aspects.
Another key area is animaltraining and management.
So again, this might be an areathat we might not be 100%
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responsible for.
We may not be doing all of theanimal training.
We may not be overseeing all ofthe animal management, but we do
need a certain level ofawareness.
We need to have a certain levelof comfort and being able to
speak up and advocate for theanimal if they're going to be
part of our sessions.
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So one, will you be the onetraining and handling the animal
in your occupational therapysession?
Because if you are, then youneed to have a skill level in
order to teach the animal whatthey need to know, be able to
translate what you need in yoursession, over into the animal
behavior side of things.
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And if not, then you're going tohave a handler on your team.
And when you have a horsehandler on your team, a goat
handler and any animal, rightthat has a handler.
We need to be able tocommunicate our needs to the
handler.
There needs to be mutual respectbetween us and the handler and
being able to have thatcommunication between the
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handler saying my animal can dothis, my animal can't do this.
My animal is struggling withthis.
And as the occupational therapyprovider, we need to respect
that.
Or opposite wise is this is notreally working for my client.
Now I need the dog to back up,or I need this client to really
be focused right now.
So maybe I need the animal toleave this room or our
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classroom, our space for alittle while.
We need to understand thebehavior or the movement that we
want to support our occupationaltherapy goals.
So if I'm using hippotherapy Ineed a particular movement to
help my client reach a state ofregulation or to engage their
extensor muscles or to practicefeed forward and feedback and I
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need a horse that can deliverthat.
And I need a horse handler thatunderstands my needs.
I also need to understand theanimal's behavior and link that
to what my occupational therapygoals are.
So if I have some social goalsinvolving reading body language
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I can help my clients start todecode some of the animal's body
language before we work on humanbody language.
So we want to recognize that theanimal has an opportunity to
choose how it's going toparticipate in our sessions.
And whenever an animal is forcedinto an interaction- that is a
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safety risk.
So part of that skill set isrecognizing that choice or
option is key to safety andsafety is the number one
priority.
There always has to be an out ora choice for that animal a way
for them to say no.
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I don't want to do this.
I can't do this.
I don't like the way that thisis happening and we need to be
able to decode that.
We need to be able to decode itand translate it.
Our handlers need to be able tocommunicate with us if that is
happening.
We want to respond to the bodylanguage cues from the animal as
part of that safety plan.
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So again, that's a keycomponent.
Is that we're reading thesignals that the animal may be
giving us and recognizing thatwe need to respond, we need the
client to respond, or we need toremove the animal from that
situation.
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We want to look at ways thatbalance the needs of the animal
and needs of the client in thesession and figuring out when to
introduce the animal and how toget closure as the animal is
going to be leaving theinteraction is important.
Sometimes the animal is done andthe client is not done, and so
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we need to have multiplestrategies in place to go ahead
and have that opportunity toclose out the interaction where
the animal is still in a goodstate.
They're, regulated and they'refeeling comfortable.
And allow the client also tohave that ability to end that
interaction.
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In some cases if, if they've hadenough of the animal.
We need the animal to be able toback down.
And sometimes we can think ofthat with dogs, but also with
goats sometimes because they'revery much interested in having
this interaction or if there wasfood introduced in the session,
then that animal may be seekingfood and then the client may
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need a break from that.
So figuring out when the animalshould be part of the session
and when it is time for thatanimal to leave.
When we have had the interactionthat we see as beneficial
towards meeting our goals.
That's a component of that.
And then recognizing when we'rebringing an animal into our
(21:10):
session, we're moreincorporating them and it
changes the dynamic.
So.
If we have a horse handler oranother handler for the animal.
Then it's you, as the clinician,the handler of the animal, the
animal and the client.
So there's four systems.
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If we're going from a dynamicsystems, there there's four
systems that are interacting.
And a change in one system willproduce a change in the other
systems.
So thinking about it becomesquickly, very quickly infinitely
more complex when we're dealingwith all these different
systems.
And if the client becomesdysregulated, and that has an
impact on the animal, and theanimal becomes stressed and the
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handler then is going to beprotective of the animal.
And then you've got to managethe handler stress protecting
the animal, the stressed outanimal and the client who's
dysregulated.
That's why the level of skillthat we need to have when we're
thinking about partnering withanimals is more complex and is
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higher.
Because there's these,components that when we think
from that dynamic systemsperspective, right, become much
more complex, much more quickly.
And we need to be able tointervene much more quickly
because we know that there aresome risks.
We need to find a way to be ableto direct the animal or the
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handler.
Through voice or hand signals orgestures.
A pat and a verbal cue for upfor a go, if I want them to come
up and be beside the client,that's a way that I can direct
the animal.
That's part of the animalstraining and behavior.
And then finding ways toidentify how I'm going to
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support the animal in a changingenvironment or changing
situations with clients.
That's another component ofbehavior and management for the
animal.
If a child is becoming moreactive or more dysregulated,
finding that way to work on thatand from a training and behavior
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perspective is important.
We're still working on skillsand this one is a big one
documentation.
So when we think aboutdocumentation the animal
interaction part of our sessionis never the only tool or
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treatment strategy orintervention that's being used
to support progress towards OTgoals.
And the goals are going to beassessed after each session, the
results are communicated to theparent, to the school, to the
payer, whoever that needs to becommunicated to.
And when we're documenting,we're focused on documenting the
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progress towards our OT goals.
We may not necessarily befocused on documenting the tools
or strategies that we've beenusing to get there, because
again, the animal interaction isonly one strategy that we're
using.
And we have other things thatwe're using in our sessions.
So thinking about am Idocumenting all of the tools and
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all of the strategies that I'musing and the animal interaction
is one of those.
How is that communicated to thestakeholders that that needs to
be communicated to?
If we're communicating toparents, the communication with
parents is really importantbecause we need them to carry
over the skills and the otherinterventions that we're using
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that support the client'sprogress.
That is all part of thatcommunication to the parent.
So when we talk aboutdocumentation, it's really
helpful, I think,for newclinicians who are interested in
partnering with animals to beable to see documentation.
What does it look like when atherapy goat is involved?
(25:08):
What does it look like when it'sa social skills group with a
bearded dragon?
So story time with Suki is asocial skills group that
involves a bearded dragon.
And so what does that look like?
The focus is not on the beardeddragon.
The focus is on the socialskills that the clients are
gaining with that.
And how do you document that?
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So it's really important asoccupational therapy providers
that we're documenting to avoidfraud.
We don't want anything to behidden in what we're doing, but
we also want our documentationto be goal and goal oriented
goal, outcome oriented.
So after going through all ofthose skills, You might be
(25:52):
wondering how do I gain theskills that are needed to begin
with animal assistedinterventions as an occupational
therapist?
And I think I can share a littlebit of my journey in how I've
gained skills in partnering withanimals and the different
animals that I've partneredwith.
(26:14):
And part of that, I would say Isexperience in the handling the
animals, the animal husbandrypiece.
I think is been really helpful.
And just since I was very young,I've had a variety of different
animals,from goats and rabbitsand ducks and Guinea pigs.
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We had a little bit ofeverything.
I think I probably convinced myparents to let me have just
about every pet that there wasat some point in my childhood.
And so I got a real hands-onexperience for a lot of that,
but then I also did have moreformal education.
And so my bachelor degree is inequine studies.
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So at that point I had a lotmore formalized education in
caring for horses in basicveterinary or emergency care
that horses might need.
In theory of teaching riding, ina lot of components of nutrition
and conditioning for horses.
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And anything that ispre-veterinary medicine, animal
studies, things like that canreally be helpful in acquiring
those kinds of basic animalhusbandry skills.
But if you don't have that orhaven't gone that way,
certainly, mentoring can be ahuge component.
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Volunteering can be really goodobservation of someone who is
having animals as part of theiroccupational therapy sessions or
practice.
And being able to observe, andthen come in and ask questions
that can also be part ofinterning or a formal academic
experience, like a field workplacement.
(28:01):
All of those can be a component.
And then there are exams likethe hippotherapy clinical
specialist exam or the animalassisted intervention specialist
exam.
Those exams can also give you afeeling of kind of your level of
competence.
But I think a lot of people'scomfort level in incorporating
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animals into their occupationaltherapy sessions is going to
come from mentoring from anotheroccupational therapy provider in
practice.
And a lot of session debriefstalking about how you're
planning on incorporating thatanimal and having someone walk
you through some of thepotential risks or pitfalls or
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things that maybe you haven'tthought of.
So having that relationship or anetworking or a mastermind group
of people who are incorporatinganimals into their sessions,
where you can really start tolearn from people.
Who've had the experience and Ihave had that opportunity.
So when people say like I'mreally interested in
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incorporating animals as anoccupational therapy, like how
can I get started?
If you have an opportunity tohave a field work rotation.
That's great.
That's a wonderful way to reallyget that hands-on experience.
Mentorship, pairing up withothers who are, already
partnering with animals isgreat.
Observing and volunteering.
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If you're interested in horsesin the hippotherapy side of
things, taking riding lessons isgood, but there's nothing that's
going to replace just the day inand day out time caring for the
animal that you would like towork with.
So I think there's the animalhusbandry piece that cannot be
replaced.
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I can go out and just look atthe goats and no.
If I need to change something orsomebody is feeling a little off
and that just comes from doingit day in and day out.
And so that makes me very tunedinto to them.
But then there's the clinicalpiece and you need to have
another clinician for that.
(30:09):
So, we do hope to offer amentoring community, to help
students and therapists who wantto work with animals in their
practice really get the clinicalpiece and the clinical support
that is going to help you besuccessful when you want to
partner with animals.
So to wrap up for today, thereare definitely specific skills
for occupational therapyproviders who want to use
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animals in their practice?
We covered a whole chunk of themtoday and they're essential for
safe and effective practice.
Finding a mentorship or fieldwork opportunity to gain these
skills is a continual area ofdevelopment in the field of OT.
In this discussion, I was hopingto introduce you to some of the
(30:51):
skills needed as an occupationaltherapy provider or a student
that's hoping to gain thoseskills.
And I'd really love to hear fromyou.
If you are an OT working withanimals in your practice, or if
this is an area of interest foryou.
Thanks for listening.
Welcome to animals and aquatics I'm Gina,
your host.
And I'm an occupationaltherapist, a sleep deprived, mom
of three, and a lover of allthings nature based.
Today, we're going to discusssome important skills when
incorporating animals into youroccupational therapy sessions.
And how to gain these skills, alittle bit about me or my
background.
I'm an occupational therapistworking in a nature based
(00:24):
private practice, incorporatinganimals and aquatics into my
practice.
I've worked with many animals inoccupational therapy, including
horses, alpacas, goats,chickens, and a bearded dragon
named Suki.
For many sessions, I have horsehandlers or horse handlers that
(00:44):
are assisting me, but I've alsobeen the handler who is working
directly with the animal andwith the client.
And it's important to befamiliar with the animals that
we're working with and the teammembers that have knowledge of
the animals.
I've worked in a nonprofit,early intervention settings,
(01:06):
outpatient pediatrics, andcurrently I teach as an adjunct
occupational therapy professorin an OTA program for pediatrics
and mental health.
Why did I think we needed torecord this episode?
My fieldwork student actuallyasked about getting started.
And how did I kind of find myway?
(01:27):
I thought that was a reallyimportant story to share.
And I thought it was importantto look at some of the key
skills.
And I've been reviewing theanimal assisted intervention
specialist certification, and inthe certification, it gives a
pretty good guideline or outlineof some of the key skills that
(01:47):
an occupational therapist who'sgoing to partner with animals
should have.
So I thought this would be anexcellent opportunity to review
those skills, different ways togain those skills and how you
could start to gear yourexperience as a student or as a
new practitioner towards workingwith animals, with your clients
and what do you need to know?
(02:08):
So in some of the core skillsthat you should have, one of
them is understanding animalbehavior.
And it's really important thatyou're familiar with the animal
or the animal species thatyou're going to work with.
So each species is a little bitdifferent that you are going to
work with.
Alpacas, goats and horses areall herd animals.
(02:31):
They're all prey animals.
But the handling requirementsand they way that they react to
things are all very different.
So understanding what stressbehaviors look like in an alpaca
is definitely different thanunderstanding what stress
behaviors look like in a horse.
So when we're thinking aboutwhat those stress behaviors look
like in a horse, I might seetail switching; I might see uh,
(02:53):
pinning of the ears, reluctanceto move forward.
In an alpaca, it could besomething like Cushing.
So when a alpaca cushes, thatmeans they lied down.
So sometimes that's a stressresponse.
And an alpaca that asfrightened, they may vocalize.
So knowing what those stressresponses look like is an
important skill to have.
(03:15):
Knowing what activeparticipation of the animal is,
is a key skill.
And so an animal that isinterested in working with you
in your occupational therapysession is key.
And our goats love to be activeparticipants in our therapy
sessions.
They're very inquisitive andinteractive.
They're going to approach theclient.
(03:37):
So those types of behaviors arethings that I'm looking for,
especially when selecting andworking with the animal.
But then also during thesession, you know, sometimes
animals have bad days too.
And I'm looking for some ofthose behaviors that show me
that the, goat or the chickenwants to be there and wants to
(03:57):
be part of this interaction.
The occupational therapyprovider needs to be able to
recognize animal stress andfatigue.
During the interaction.
So if the animal is gettingtired of the interaction, tired
of the therapy session, tired ofthe way that the client is
interacting, we need to be ableto step in and intervene.
(04:19):
So that is a key skill that ouroccupational therapy providers
we're going to partner withanimals, needs to have, and then
the risk factors.
So each animal species that wework with has different risk
factors, involve horses are bigand strong and powerful, and
there are significant riskfactors.
Goats are smaller and our goatsare de-horned so disbudded.
(04:42):
They don't have horns.
So that limits one risk factor.
And we said one of my fears withgoats, if they do have their
horns,'cause we had some thathad horns that were extremely
social and would have made goodtherapy, goat counterparts, but
with their horns I was alwaysafraid of some person bending
(05:03):
over to pet them and the goat,bringing their head up suddenly
like, oh, what's that?
And catching someone with theirhorns.
Like not even intentionally.
Doing anything with the horns,but just that, that would be a
risk factor.
Alpacas have soft toes.
So if they were to kick, theyhave soft toes.
They don't have upper teeth.
(05:24):
So they can't bite in the sameway that a dog could bite.
So knowing what each animal'srisk factors are.
Are a component of knowing thoseanimal behaviors.
Now.
That's the animal part, but thenwhen we put the animal and the
client together, there's aninteraction piece.
(05:44):
Right.
So how do you screen the clientsthat are going to be part of
your occupational therapysession, where you are
incorporating animals, knowingwhat factors to screen for and
how you're going to look at thatpartnership between the client
and the animal.
Like when is it going to be agood fit?
When is it reallytherapeutically beneficial for
(06:06):
an animal to be part of theoccupational therapy session?
When is it going to help thatclient move towards more more
quickly or help them accomplishmore skills or help them feel
safe.
So screening the clients is akey skill that we need to
develop and having a system inplace is really important
(06:27):
because it allows us asoccupational therapy providers
to be fair with who is havingthe interactions.
If we have a larger caseload orwe work in a bigger practice uh
deciding who is going to beinvolved at the stable and be
using hippotherapy or who isgoing to be part of a group
(06:48):
where the therapy goats arecoming.
That's really important thatthere are some set criteria in a
way that we screen clients.
But we also want to make sureit's a benefit to the client.
That it's just not somethingelse that we're throwing into
the session or something that iskind of a requirement for every
session, because in somesessions it may not be
beneficial or it may not help usmove towards our occupational
(07:11):
therapy goals.
So we're looking at what is thatrisk?
What is the benefit and how isit going to help the client move
along?
How has this interaction withthe animal going to help the
client move along towards theirgoal.
As the leading therapist oroccupational therapy assistant,
(07:32):
who's leading the OT session, weneed to be able to manage the
roles that the client and theanimal play.
And if you are the handler forthe animal, you are really
managing dual roles.
You're needing to be there as asupport person for the animal
you're needing to manage theanimals behaviors, but then you
also need to be there for theclient and helping the client
(07:55):
feel safe and be sensoryregulated and gain the skills
that they need to reach theirgoals.
And sometimes there can be a bitof a conflict between where the
animal is at and where theclient is at.
So being able to manage both ofthose roles is really a key
skill.
And then communication.
Communication to the animal, tothe client and to the handler.
(08:18):
So often when I'm teachingothers about hippotherapy, I say
it's really like being dual ortrilingual lingual, because we
need to be able to speak horselanguage to our horse handlers.
We need to be able tocommunicate to the client in a
way that is client centered.
(08:40):
So if I'm working with children,it has to be child-friendly.
And then I may need to eithercommunicate to the parent or to
other people on the team memberin a more clinical way or a
parent friendly way.
So being able to switch betweenall those dialects is really
important.
But when we're communicatingdirectly to the animal, if we
need to give the animal acommand.
(09:02):
So if I want a goat to jump up,right, I need to be able to give
them the command to come up.
And I want them to know thatthat's an expectation for them,
which is different than what I'mcommunicating to the client.
So when we're thinking aboutincorporating animals into our
sessions, we're looking at thatfunctional outcome and basing
(09:25):
our knowledge and our skills ofthose functional outcomes and
then translating the interactionwith the animal or the
bio-psychosocial response frominput, from a movement
experience, from an animal likea horse into that functional
outcome.
That is a key component ofclinical reasoning.
(09:47):
For an occupational therapyprovider to have, when you're
thinking of partnering withanimals is understanding what
the client is going to get fromthat interaction and then being
able to translate it into howdoes that get that client closer
to the goals.
So you're adapting theinteraction or the input from
the animal to the needs of theclient.
(10:10):
And as a pediatric OT, there aremany ways to address ADL's,
education, play through theseinteractions with animals.
And then additionally, from amental health perspective, we
can incorporate animals as animportant component to
addressing our client's mentalhealth.
So as OTs are really good ataddressing health and wellness,
(10:35):
this partnering with animalsreally can be a very good fit.
Another key area for skills theoccupational therapy providers
should have before they decidedto partner with animals is
understanding the health andsafety component.
So what are potential risks tothe client?
So with horses, we know thatthere could be a risk of being
(10:59):
kicked.
Being bitten being stepped on.
If the client is on the horseand experiencing the movement of
the horse, there's a risk of afall.
So for each animal species thatwe work with, we need to know
what those risks are to theclient.
And we need to decide if thoserisks can be mitigated and in
(11:20):
which ways can they bemitigated?
And the component with that thenis then what is the benefit?
What are the risks to theanimal?
Based on the type of interactionthat we're going to partner
between the animal and theclient, what are the risks to
the animals?
So we, I mentioned stress alittle bit, but there are other
(11:42):
risks.
Some of the clientele that Iwork with are prone to having
outbursts and that can bepsychologically stressful for
the animal, but it also could bephysically stressful for the
animal.
We can think about things thatchildren just don't know any
better.
And although we're very close,in supervising and, being there
(12:05):
for the client and the animalthere is just that like
momentary thing where a clientis like, Ooh, let me touch the
eyeball.
And that is a risk to theanimal, is as an adult and we
wouldn't go up and we wouldn'ttouch or poke an animal in the
eye, but a child may do that andthey may not even do it to be
(12:26):
hurtful.
They may just be curious and notunderstand the effect that's
going to have.
On animals that are morefragile, like chickens and
rabbits, children can be roughand that's one of the things
that we're really cautious aboutwhen we have interactions with
the bearded dragon, he's veryeasy to handle and the children
(12:46):
very much like to be able tohold him or put them put him on
their shoulder, but if the childwere to become frightened
because the bearded dragon movedor if they are just done with
holding him and they're unableto communicate that and they
drop him, that would be a riskto him.
So being able to mitigate thoserisks as much as possible.
(13:12):
The occupational therapyprovider should be aware either
in charge of, or able to overseecare and grooming of the animal.
So you may not be responsiblefor all of the functions of
caring for, and grooming theanimal, but you should be aware
of what it takes to do so.
What is correct what that animalshould look like when they are
(13:35):
in good health and well groomed.
And what needs to be done ifthat's not happening.
So who on the therapy team needsto be in charge of that.
Who do you need to speak with?
Do you need to speak with anequine or a barn manager?
Do you need to speak with thehandler that's volunteering and
bringing that animal to yoursession is the animal having
(13:55):
some sort of health issue inwhich they shouldn't be
participating in youroccupational therapy sessions
until that issue is resolved?
And that kind of leads us to thenext component of health and
safety, which are zoonoticinfections and knowing what can
be transmitted from an animal toa client is super important for
(14:15):
any occupational therapyprovider.
That's going to partner withanimals.
It's an absolute must skill.
You must know what couldpotentially be transmitted from
the animal to a client and howto prevent it.
And we just want to give anexample from goats.
So with goats, they getsomething called orf, O R F,
(14:40):
it's a viral infection and itcauses like blistering and
lesions around the face and themouth.
It's really yucky.
And it can be transmitted tohumans.
So we always say don't ever kissyour goats because if they were
to get orf, you could get it andyou will get the same blisters
(15:01):
around your face and mouth.
It is not pretty.
And you do not want orf.
So that's something that can betransmitted from goat to human.
When we know it as a ringwormand it's a fungal skin
infection, it's fairly common.
It's in animals.
You can see it in, in goats andhorses, and it's made in a round
(15:23):
shape, which is why it's calledringworm and, but it's actually
fungal and it can be transmittedfrom the animal to the human.
Again, it's transmitted both bydirect contact.
So both orf and ringworm aretransmitted from direct contact
with an infected animal.
(15:43):
And so again, that's why it's soimportant for the health and
safety of our clients and ouranimals.
That if we are partnering withanimals, we have a good
understanding of those healthand safety aspects.
Another key area is animaltraining and management.
So again, this might be an areathat we might not be 100%
(16:06):
responsible for.
We may not be doing all of theanimal training.
We may not be overseeing all ofthe animal management, but we do
need a certain level ofawareness.
We need to have a certain levelof comfort and being able to
speak up and advocate for theanimal if they're going to be
part of our sessions.
(16:27):
So one, will you be the onetraining and handling the animal
in your occupational therapysession?
Because if you are, then youneed to have a skill level in
order to teach the animal whatthey need to know, be able to
translate what you need in yoursession, over into the animal
behavior side of things.
(16:48):
And if not, then you're going tohave a handler on your team.
And when you have a horsehandler on your team, a goat
handler and any animal, rightthat has a handler.
We need to be able tocommunicate our needs to the
handler.
There needs to be mutual respectbetween us and the handler and
being able to have thatcommunication between the
(17:11):
handler saying my animal can dothis, my animal can't do this.
My animal is struggling withthis.
And as the occupational therapyprovider, we need to respect
that.
Or opposite wise is this is notreally working for my client.
Now I need the dog to back up,or I need this client to really
be focused right now.
So maybe I need the animal toleave this room or our
(17:34):
classroom, our space for alittle while.
We need to understand thebehavior or the movement that we
want to support our occupationaltherapy goals.
So if I'm using hippotherapy Ineed a particular movement to
help my client reach a state ofregulation or to engage their
extensor muscles or to practicefeed forward and feedback and I
(17:58):
need a horse that can deliverthat.
And I need a horse handler thatunderstands my needs.
I also need to understand theanimal's behavior and link that
to what my occupational therapygoals are.
So if I have some social goalsinvolving reading body language
(18:19):
I can help my clients start todecode some of the animal's body
language before we work on humanbody language.
So we want to recognize that theanimal has an opportunity to
choose how it's going toparticipate in our sessions.
And whenever an animal is forcedinto an interaction- that is a
(18:41):
safety risk.
So part of that skill set isrecognizing that choice or
option is key to safety andsafety is the number one
priority.
There always has to be an out ora choice for that animal a way
for them to say no.
(19:03):
I don't want to do this.
I can't do this.
I don't like the way that thisis happening and we need to be
able to decode that.
We need to be able to decode itand translate it.
Our handlers need to be able tocommunicate with us if that is
happening.
We want to respond to the bodylanguage cues from the animal as
part of that safety plan.
(19:24):
So again, that's a keycomponent.
Is that we're reading thesignals that the animal may be
giving us and recognizing thatwe need to respond, we need the
client to respond, or we need toremove the animal from that
situation.
(19:44):
We want to look at ways thatbalance the needs of the animal
and needs of the client in thesession and figuring out when to
introduce the animal and how toget closure as the animal is
going to be leaving theinteraction is important.
Sometimes the animal is done andthe client is not done, and so
(20:06):
we need to have multiplestrategies in place to go ahead
and have that opportunity toclose out the interaction where
the animal is still in a goodstate.
They're, regulated and they'refeeling comfortable.
And allow the client also tohave that ability to end that
interaction.
(20:27):
In some cases if, if they've hadenough of the animal.
We need the animal to be able toback down.
And sometimes we can think ofthat with dogs, but also with
goats sometimes because they'revery much interested in having
this interaction or if there wasfood introduced in the session,
then that animal may be seekingfood and then the client may
(20:49):
need a break from that.
So figuring out when the animalshould be part of the session
and when it is time for thatanimal to leave.
When we have had the interactionthat we see as beneficial
towards meeting our goals.
That's a component of that.
And then recognizing when we'rebringing an animal into our
(21:10):
session, we're moreincorporating them and it
changes the dynamic.
So.
If we have a horse handler oranother handler for the animal.
Then it's you, as the clinician,the handler of the animal, the
animal and the client.
So there's four systems.
(21:31):
If we're going from a dynamicsystems, there there's four
systems that are interacting.
And a change in one system willproduce a change in the other
systems.
So thinking about it becomesquickly, very quickly infinitely
more complex when we're dealingwith all these different
systems.
And if the client becomesdysregulated, and that has an
impact on the animal, and theanimal becomes stressed and the
(21:54):
handler then is going to beprotective of the animal.
And then you've got to managethe handler stress protecting
the animal, the stressed outanimal and the client who's
dysregulated.
That's why the level of skillthat we need to have when we're
thinking about partnering withanimals is more complex and is
(22:15):
higher.
Because there's these,components that when we think
from that dynamic systemsperspective, right, become much
more complex, much more quickly.
And we need to be able tointervene much more quickly
because we know that there aresome risks.
We need to find a way to be ableto direct the animal or the
(22:37):
handler.
Through voice or hand signals orgestures.
A pat and a verbal cue for upfor a go, if I want them to come
up and be beside the client,that's a way that I can direct
the animal.
That's part of the animalstraining and behavior.
And then finding ways toidentify how I'm going to
(22:58):
support the animal in a changingenvironment or changing
situations with clients.
That's another component ofbehavior and management for the
animal.
If a child is becoming moreactive or more dysregulated,
finding that way to work on thatand from a training and behavior
(23:18):
perspective is important.
We're still working on skillsand this one is a big one
documentation.
So when we think aboutdocumentation the animal
interaction part of our sessionis never the only tool or
(23:39):
treatment strategy orintervention that's being used
to support progress towards OTgoals.
And the goals are going to beassessed after each session, the
results are communicated to theparent, to the school, to the
payer, whoever that needs to becommunicated to.
And when we're documenting,we're focused on documenting the
(24:02):
progress towards our OT goals.
We may not necessarily befocused on documenting the tools
or strategies that we've beenusing to get there, because
again, the animal interaction isonly one strategy that we're
using.
And we have other things thatwe're using in our sessions.
So thinking about am Idocumenting all of the tools and
(24:23):
all of the strategies that I'musing and the animal interaction
is one of those.
How is that communicated to thestakeholders that that needs to
be communicated to?
If we're communicating toparents, the communication with
parents is really importantbecause we need them to carry
over the skills and the otherinterventions that we're using
(24:47):
that support the client'sprogress.
That is all part of thatcommunication to the parent.
So when we talk aboutdocumentation, it's really
helpful, I think,for newclinicians who are interested in
partnering with animals to beable to see documentation.
What does it look like when atherapy goat is involved?
(25:08):
What does it look like when it'sa social skills group with a
bearded dragon?
So story time with Suki is asocial skills group that
involves a bearded dragon.
And so what does that look like?
The focus is not on the beardeddragon.
The focus is on the socialskills that the clients are
gaining with that.
And how do you document that?
(25:29):
So it's really important asoccupational therapy providers
that we're documenting to avoidfraud.
We don't want anything to behidden in what we're doing, but
we also want our documentationto be goal and goal oriented
goal, outcome oriented.
So after going through all ofthose skills, You might be
(25:52):
wondering how do I gain theskills that are needed to begin
with animal assistedinterventions as an occupational
therapist?
And I think I can share a littlebit of my journey in how I've
gained skills in partnering withanimals and the different
animals that I've partneredwith.
(26:14):
And part of that, I would say Isexperience in the handling the
animals, the animal husbandrypiece.
I think is been really helpful.
And just since I was very young,I've had a variety of different
animals,from goats and rabbitsand ducks and Guinea pigs.
(26:34):
We had a little bit ofeverything.
I think I probably convinced myparents to let me have just
about every pet that there wasat some point in my childhood.
And so I got a real hands-onexperience for a lot of that,
but then I also did have moreformal education.
And so my bachelor degree is inequine studies.
(26:56):
So at that point I had a lotmore formalized education in
caring for horses in basicveterinary or emergency care
that horses might need.
In theory of teaching riding, ina lot of components of nutrition
and conditioning for horses.
(27:18):
And anything that ispre-veterinary medicine, animal
studies, things like that canreally be helpful in acquiring
those kinds of basic animalhusbandry skills.
But if you don't have that orhaven't gone that way,
certainly, mentoring can be ahuge component.
(27:39):
Volunteering can be really goodobservation of someone who is
having animals as part of theiroccupational therapy sessions or
practice.
And being able to observe, andthen come in and ask questions
that can also be part ofinterning or a formal academic
experience, like a field workplacement.
(28:01):
All of those can be a component.
And then there are exams likethe hippotherapy clinical
specialist exam or the animalassisted intervention specialist
exam.
Those exams can also give you afeeling of kind of your level of
competence.
But I think a lot of people'scomfort level in incorporating
(28:24):
animals into their occupationaltherapy sessions is going to
come from mentoring from anotheroccupational therapy provider in
practice.
And a lot of session debriefstalking about how you're
planning on incorporating thatanimal and having someone walk
you through some of thepotential risks or pitfalls or
(28:44):
things that maybe you haven'tthought of.
So having that relationship or anetworking or a mastermind group
of people who are incorporatinganimals into their sessions,
where you can really start tolearn from people.
Who've had the experience and Ihave had that opportunity.
So when people say like I'mreally interested in
(29:07):
incorporating animals as anoccupational therapy, like how
can I get started?
If you have an opportunity tohave a field work rotation.
That's great.
That's a wonderful way to reallyget that hands-on experience.
Mentorship, pairing up withothers who are, already
partnering with animals isgreat.
Observing and volunteering.
(29:28):
If you're interested in horsesin the hippotherapy side of
things, taking riding lessons isgood, but there's nothing that's
going to replace just the day inand day out time caring for the
animal that you would like towork with.
So I think there's the animalhusbandry piece that cannot be
replaced.
(29:48):
I can go out and just look atthe goats and no.
If I need to change something orsomebody is feeling a little off
and that just comes from doingit day in and day out.
And so that makes me very tunedinto to them.
But then there's the clinicalpiece and you need to have
another clinician for that.
(30:09):
So, we do hope to offer amentoring community, to help
students and therapists who wantto work with animals in their
practice really get the clinicalpiece and the clinical support
that is going to help you besuccessful when you want to
partner with animals.
So to wrap up for today, thereare definitely specific skills
for occupational therapyproviders who want to use
(30:31):
animals in their practice?
We covered a whole chunk of themtoday and they're essential for
safe and effective practice.
Finding a mentorship or fieldwork opportunity to gain these
skills is a continual area ofdevelopment in the field of OT.
In this discussion, I was hopingto introduce you to some of the
(30:51):
skills needed as an occupationaltherapy provider or a student
that's hoping to gain thoseskills.
And I'd really love to hear fromyou.
If you are an OT working withanimals in your practice, or if
this is an area of interest foryou.
Thanks for listening.
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