He was man’s best friend, here he is propelled into the function of caregiver. His speciality ? The mentally ill. Since 2010, the Philippe-Pinel psychiatric hospital in Amiens has brought dogs into the services.
“This hospital, specifies the site of Current wife, is the only center in France where canine therapy has been integrated into a comprehensive psychiatric treatment program. 54 doctors are authorized to prescribe this therapy and 259 patients have benefited from it.
Golden retrievers or other shepherds act as anti-depressive medicine. They very often make it possible to break the isolation of the patient, to reduce stress and to socialize certain patients.
And these four dogs have changed the lives of several boarders. Like that of Priscilla, 27 years old. She suffered from infantile psychoses and mutilated herself by burning or scarifying herself. Thanks to her canine companions, “Zoé” and “Fatou”, she came out of her isolation to take regular walks in the park.
Older, 43 years old, Stéphane, too, has left his daily hell. This schizophrenic patient swallowed everything that passed through his hands: forks, sheets that he cut into strips. Until the day he met “Zoé”. This dog may have saved his life. From one day to the next, the patient no longer ingested foreign bodies.
