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Pets may have valuable role in mental health treatment

Pets should be considered a main source of support for individuals with long-term mental health problems, according to recent findings.

“The people we spoke to through the course of this study felt their pet played a range of positive roles such as helping them to manage stigma associated with their mental health by providing acceptance without judgement,” Helen Brooks, PhD, of University of Manchester, United Kingdom, said in a press release. “Pets were also considered particularly useful during times of crisis. In this way, pets provided a unique form of validation through unconditional support, which they were often not receiving from other family or social relationships. Despite the identified benefits of pet ownership, pets were neither considered nor incorporated into the individual care plans for any of the people in our study.”

To assess the role of pets in supporting individuals with long-term mental health problems, researchers conducted semi-structured interviews center on “ego” network mapping among 54 individuals.

Most participants placed pets in the central, most valued circle of support within network diagrams.

Participants reported pets provided secure and intimate relationships not available elsewhere.

Analysis designated pets as a valuable source of illness work in managing feelings through distraction from symptoms and negative experiences and encouraging activity.

Pets had increased salience where relationships with other network members were limited or difficult.

Despite these findings, researchers found pets were unanimously neither considered or incorporated in individual mental health care plans.

“These insights provide the mental health community with possible areas to target intervention and potential ways in which to better involve people in their own mental health service provision through open discussion of what works best for them,” Brooks said in the release. – by Amanda Oldt

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.