Bringing dogs into cancer departments in hospitals is no longer entirely new. In recent years, Malinois shepherds have indeed been trained to detect the smell of cancer in samples of sweat, urine, breath …
But at the Amiens hospital center, it is within the psychiatry service that caregivers call on dogs. Since 2010, under the leadership of a nurse cynotherapist, four dogs have integrated the therapeutic arsenal. Since then, 259 patients aged 6 to 98 have been treated, and 54 doctors are now “cynotherapy prescribers”.
The dog is a medicine like any other
Stopping the isolation process, reducing stress, adapting to social life, the benefits of dogs in psychiatric care are as diverse as the disorders from which patients suffer.
“We began to use this type of therapy for patients who had difficulty opening up to the outside world. The patient, withdrawn into himself, focuses on the animal that reassures him, and thus manages to ignore the surrounding environment to confront reality “, explains Dr Cyril Guillaumont, head of pole in the columns of the New Republic.
At the Philippe Pinel hospital center, the dog has become “a drug like any other: there is an initial evaluation, a prescription with the patient’s agreement and a therapeutic effect which is evaluated” adds the doctor.
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