Bonding at the Very End Emerging Personhood During End-of-life and Palliative Care Through Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT)

This study is a qualitative anthropological research that explores the effects of Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT) for people with moderate and severe dementia living in a care facility. In particular, the study explores the effects that AAT can have on people with moderate and later stages of dementia, living in a care facility, on: Behavioural and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSD); mood (depression); quality of life; activity (physical). The AAT effects on people with moderate and later stages of dementia will be compared with effects that other activities provided in the care facility where participants live, may have on the same participants.

AAT is defined as an activity provided by a handler and his/her animal (e.g., dog, cat, rabbit, bird, horse) for somebody living with a certain medical condition/illness. AAT is different than Assistant Dogs/Animal (e.g., guide dogs for the blind), who have a very specific training. In this research, we will focus mostly on therapy-dogs and therapy-owls for people with dementia living in care homes.

The research will be conducted over a period of 12 months. The primary methods that will be used are participant observation (accompanying and observing volunteers during animal-assisted therapy meetings and various activities in the care homes) and interviewing the residents, care homes' staff, volunteers, canine trainers and veterinarians. Additional data will be collected through document analysis (consulting care home policies and participants' care plans and medical notes) and auto-ethnography (auto-observations of interactions between the student and 2 dogs).

The instruments described in the outcome measures are used as guidance only. As this research is non-quantitative, the items listed in the scale instruments are not administered like in a usual clinical testing. The specificity of anthropological research, especially in regard to the use of its methods (participant observation, triangulated with in-depth interview, document analysis and auto-ethnography) addresses implicitly the limitations of such instruments.

While the focus of the research remains on the interactions between people with dementia and therapy-animals, the involvement of the other participants offers different perspectives of looking at these interactions and at their context. For anthropological research, it is fundamental that a certain topic/issue is addressed in its context by gathering information from multiple perspectives. This has been documented as being one of the biggest strengths of anthropological research investigating a clinical-related topic.