Our Mission & Campaign
With over 20 years experience, I have witnessed how the most vulnerable people in our society often struggle to communicate in a way that enables them to be listened to, heard and understood.
This may be because of physical or psychological difficulties, such as dementia, autism, brain injury, anxiety, stroke, post-traumatic stress disorder and more. Can you imagine how confusing, distressing and frustrating it must be for people who struggle to communicate and find it difficult to form and maintain relationships?
Everyone tells us that animal assisted interventions can make a big difference, but there is so much more we need to know.
Dogs are masters of communication.
Dog Assisted Therapy for Change is a not for profit project, set up in memory of Emma, my beloved four legged friend.
Our aim is to complete a formal study to understand how structured Dog Assisted Therapy affects the quality of social interactions.
We want to bring together the pockets of evidence that exist and what YOU have shared with us, so that service providers who value meaningful communication with people who use their services have the evidence to support funding for Dog Assisted Therapy and further research.
Alzheimer’s Show, Olympia, London, June 2016.
We had the wonderful opportunity to exhibit, present, meet and talk with lots of like-minded people at the Alzheimer’s Show.
We received such an overwhelming and positive response, thank you. You shared many examples of how dogs have assisted adults and children with a wide range of physical and mental health difficulties.
Collaboration with Dogs for Good.
We
completed a pilot project with Dogs for Good, using the International Occupational Therapy outcome measure, the Evaluation of Social Interaction (ESI). This case study explored the impact of structured dog assisted therapy on the quality of social interaction skills for a child with an acquired brain injury.
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Dementia Dog
The Dementia Dog project (Alzheimer Scotland & Dogs for Good) is ongoing. We introduced my research proposal to Dementia Dog to evaluate the impact of goal focused, structured dog assisted therapy on behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia, specifically apathy and agitation. We hope to be able to provide you with progress on this soon.
Qualifications
Karen achieved an Accredited Diploma in Canine Behaviour Professional with distinction and an Accredited Diploma in Rescue Dog Rehabilitation and Cognition with distinction.
Thank you from Karen & The Pack
Bonnie, Lacey & Marcus
