Begona Fernandez |
Madrid (EFE).- Dog-assisted therapies do not cure but do moderate pain in the case of pediatric cancer, 30% less according to calculations by the Animal and Society chair at the Rey Juan Carlos University (URJC), which also observes alleviation of fear and anxiety in pediatric intensive care units.
Kira is a twelve-year-old labrador retriever who has been an assistance dog for eleven years at the rehabilitation center of the Children’s Oncology Association of Madrid (Asion) where therapy focuses on rehabilitation after cancer and on survival, which is increasing every day. but with sequels that have to be worked on.
Kira’s trainer and psychologist is Ignacio Clemente, who tells EFE how the dog is not only useful in the 40 minutes or one hour of therapy, but also afterwards: “We create a memory with the dog captured in a photo to which the patient goes when pain comes, the memory is evoked and the pain is lighter.”
This is very common psychological pain in children and that animal therapies help them cope. Asion’s neuropsychologist Alicia Moraleda explains that the therapy lasts for a school year and the only requirement is that the child likes dogs, because the most important thing is that he is motivated to do the therapeutic work and notes that when the session ends the atmosphere is totally relaxed.
Therapy with dogs humanizes the hospital stay
But this therapy is also offered in hospitalization. The child with cancer requires prolonged admissions and this causes fear, pain and uncertainty, so humanizing the stay with dog-assisted interventions makes it bearable and even makes the memory of the hospital friendly.
This is the opinion of the coordinator of this URJC chair, Nuria Máximo, who has been working since 2019 with children and adolescents with cancer and other pathologies in different hospitals with positive results.
From this chair they evaluate the benefits of test therapy before and after the session. The measurement follows a visual scale that measures pain from 1 to 10 and uses little faces instead of numbers, where a smile means total absence of pain.
The little faces progress to more serious until reaching 10 where the crying expression suggests unbearable pain.
With these tests, the chair corroborates in Spain what is already known internationally according to multiple investigations: that interaction with dogs mitigates pain and even disappears during sessions.
Distraction with the pet makes the pain recede
The Gregorio Marañón University Hospital (Madrid) uses dog assistance in the pediatric and adolescent oncology floors with a very good response in all ages, according to the pediatric oncohematologist Elena Cela.
“Pain has a multifactorial origin and the mind can make it alleviate part of the drugs that are used regularly and this distraction in caring for the animal makes the pain withdraw,” he says.
The sessions, once a week, are individual or collective, depending on the patient and the benefits are seen in the short term since a relationship between dog and child of tenderness and entertainment is created.
At the Gregorio Marañón hospital, says Cela, there is a roof terrace with a garden and some children walk their dogs there with the feeling of being outside the hospital.
On October 12, a pioneer in humanization
The 12 de Octubre university hospital is a pioneer in using this therapy in pediatric intensive units.
Pediatric intensivist Ana Palacios explains that in these units children are chosen who are awake enough to interact with the animal and who do not have criteria that contradict it, such as allergies or significant immunosuppression.
In the ICU you always work with the same dog because it is a very particular environment of smells and sounds and an animal with a lot of control is required.
Children from 3 years of age can participate and sometimes the therapy is transferred to parents of babies with prolonged admissions to reduce their level of anxiety.
Therapy improves psychomotor skills in children with brain damage
At the Niño Jesús hospital, assistance therapy is provided with dogs in the brain damage unit. Physiotherapist Eva Girol explains to Efe that 40% of children with brain damage are due to tumors, so therapy focuses on achieving better psychomotor skills.
Girol reports that in the unit they carry out an evaluation before and after the treatment that confirms significant advances in functional capacities.
Trying to stand up, brush the dog or call him are improvements that can be seen after eight sessions.
Children’s bond with dogs is very high and there are families that incorporate a pet at the end of treatment. There was the case of some parents who did without their dog at the beginning of the child’s illness and precisely in therapy a practically identical dog assisted him. The connection was so great that they came to doubt if it was the same animal.
