2023 Volume 27 Issue 2 Pages 108-117
Animal-assisted intervention (AAI) is applied in various fields such as medical and nursing care, and education, providing healing to humans. It also provides social roles for animals, enriching the lives of both humans and animals. However, AAI activities have been stopped due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic globally. It is expected that COVID-19 caused a serious impact on the maintenance of AAI operations in Japan. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of COVID-19 on AAI practitioners, beneficiaries, and elderly care facilities.
The focus person was defined as a person who engaged in AAI at an elderly care facility since before the start of COVID-19. Five study collaborators - four AAI practitioners and two staff members of an elderly care facility (of which one is also an AAI practitioner) in Hokkaido, Japan - were interviewed from February to June 2022 for the situations before COVID-19, after the start of the pandemic, and two years after the start of pandemic. A practitioner was interviewed online, while the others were face-to-face. Each interview lasted 30-50 minutes, and the interview data were transcribed and analyzed qualitatively, using the Modified Grounded Theory Approach method. In more detail, concepts were created from data, and categories were generated from several concepts. Finally, a result diagram was created to consider the relationships between the categories, and story lines were written.
Before COVID-19, AAI activities provided favorable effects to all AAI practitioners, beneficiaries, and the elder care facility. AAI activities had been suspended since 2020. A notable reduction in the welfare of elderly users of the care facility occurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the situation was ameliorated by two years after the start of pandemic. Both AAI practitioners and elderly care facility staff were looking forward to the resumption of activities and were planning to reduce contact opportunities by visiting private rooms, rather than gathering in one place. The challenges identified were that all dogs have lost eligibility and must be retested for aptitude, and voluntary AAI practitioners must be recruited. It is expected to take some time to reestablish the implementation system.
