Animal-Assisted Intervention
Purrfect pawtners for life!
by Kyle Ramiel Dalangin

Admit it. You get a fix from watching videos on social media of dogs and cats doing tricks or performing hilarious antics

No matter how bad your day is, your face lights up when these videos cross your timeline.

You take a pause from whatever you are doing to watch the entire video clip and find yourself grinning all throughout.

Indeed, animals not only make us smile. Research shows that they also help us improve our quality of life.

This is valuable especially with the pandemic locking us in our homes, our social lives confined to those who we live with, and our activities limited to what we can do within the four walls of our house, or if lucky enough to have one, within our yard.

But hey, if there is something we can do, it is to live and interact with pets and bring another source of joy into our lives to help us cope with mental health concerns amid and beyond this pandemic.

The UPLB Office of Counseling and Guidance (OCG) of the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs (OVCSA) is making this possible for staff and students through a partnership with Sandigan Sandalan volunteers of UPLB by implementing an animal-assisted intervention (AAI) program entitled “UPLB BARKada at CATropa.”

Dogs and cats to the rescue

“UPLB BARKada at CATropa” aims to provide psychosocial support to UPLB constituents, most especially students. It intends to give an alternative venue for them to unwind.

OCG came up with the program after observing a rise in the number of students who were diagnosed and suffering from mental health disorders during the pandemic.

According to Dr. Jea Agnes T. Buera, OCG director and faculty member at the College of Arts and Sciences, this came at a juncture when the OCG was in search of a platform for its mental health volunteers who were trained at the “Sandigan, Sandalan: UPLB Training Program for Peer Mental Health Advocates” on Oct. 11-Nov. 22, 2021.

Thirty faculty and research and extension professionals who signed up as facilitators and 50 students from various student organizations who volunteered to serve as peer mental health advocates completed the training.

Many of the volunteers were found to be pet lovers with a good number of them being faculty members and students of the College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM).

Among them was Dr. Maria Catalina “Rina” T. De Luna, CVM faculty member and director of the UP Professional School for Agriculture and Environment.

She had been pushing for Animal-Assisted Intervention (AAI) as a way to address mental health issues in the university, especially among its students.

With this, things fell into place for BARKada at CATropa to become the platform for the Sandigan Sandalan trainees.

AAI the UPLB way

According to Dr. De Luna, who is also the AAI trainer, AAI promotes social interaction between animals and humans that helps in alleviating anxiety, depression, and the negative effects of isolation.

AAI is classified into three types: animal-assisted activities (AAA), animal-assisted education (AAE), and animal-assisted therapy (AAT). The UPLB program will consist of AAA and AAT.

According to Pet Partners, an organization dedicated to improving the quality of life through the human-animal bond, AAA is less structured and involves informal pet visitations for motivational, educational, and recreational purposes.

AAI at UPLB will include online BARKada at CATropa, face-to-face outdoor activities with dogs at the BARK Park, and face-to-face small group indoor interactions at the PURRoom for cats and AAWvenue for dogs.

A proposed location for BARK Park are the SU grounds while PURRoom and AAWVenue are to be housed at the SU building groundfloor.

AAT, on the other hand, is a planned and goal-oriented intervention that includes sessions with Guidance Services Specialist (GSS) of the OVCSA and ka-PAWtners or the human-animal duo.

Benefits of AAI

What exactly can animals do for us aside from making our days better?

A review of the benefits and risks of AAI by Fabrizio et al., found that it reduces stress, anxiety, and pain. This is why it is often used in mental health programs.

AAI programs also induce changes in nutritional intake and vital signs.

A SAGE publication article about AAI  by Michele Morrison said that it improves blood pressure, heart rate, and increases salivary immunoglobulin A levels which enhances immunity.

Allergies, infections, and animal-related accidents are some of the risks in conducting an AAI program. However, with proper and effective implementation, these can be prevented. A simple precaution can bring life-changing benefits to people’s health.

It is known to everyone that animals bring comfort to humans. Most of us consider them as companions. Some even consider them as their own children.

It is common knowledge that they have the capabilities to improve the quality of our lives.

Undeniably, these animals can be purrfect pawtners for life.

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