Background: Acute stroke can have devastating emotional impacts and Animal Assisted Intervention has been reported as improving stroke patients' mood, enhancing life quality. DOgSS is a study to discover if dog-visiting makes a difference to stroke patients’ expressed mood and, with a One Welfare approach, also monitors the dog’s wellbeing.
Aims: To determine if dog-visiting makes a difference to the expressed mood of patients engaging with the dog, how dog-visits impact on informal patient supports present during the visit, along with staff, volunteers, dog handler and the dog’s wellbeing.
Methods: We developed a protocol for our three-cycle Action Research, collecting wellbeing data from stroke patients before and after receiving dog-visits, comments from their informal supports (carers/family/friends) visiting at the time, associated staff, volunteers, dog-handler (using Smiley Faces (McNemar test), Likert mood scales (paired t-test)) and the dog (biomarker and ethographic data) for multi-faceted information about the study’s impact.
Results: Twenty-four post-stroke Stroke Unit patients who consented to participate were visited by the dog and handler in Cycle 1. Preliminary analysis showed that there was a significant positive effect of the dog-visit on the patient’s mood (p<0.05). Comments from patients, visiting informal supports, staff, volunteers and the dog handler were positive and encouraging, e.g., “Amazing to see the improved mood during the dog’s visit. Pt much more interactive and smiling. Nice for the staff to see such a positive moment…” and “My mother’s face lit up upon seeing the dog, and her mood improved after the visit. Therapy dogs should be available more often.” Our results will be used to inform amendment of our project description to enhance Cycle 2.
Conclusion: We completed Cycle 1 and report improved expressed participant mood and helpful feedback to improve Cycle 2, part of continuous quality improvement.