Helping Hands

REDOG

Assistance Projects

Helping Hands –  REDOG

Assistance projects highlight the very essence of the relationship between humans and animals and show that humans can live and work with animals in a mutually beneficial way. In addition to being a pet and companion, pets also actively help and assist humans in many different ways and tend to become a friend of the patient, as well as helper and assistant.

For socially isolated individuals or disabled people, the remedial value of a relationship with an animal can be positively used to improve the health and general well-being of patients. The Assistance Projects can be used in conjunction with or in addition to general hospital care and may provide the patient with an alternative means of healing and recovery, as well as providing a general improvement in their wellbeing.

The animals are specially trained to assist in the care of the individual and act as a live-in companion, providing independence, companionship, dignity and hope. In Assistance Projects there is a symbiotic relationship with the pet therapy; the animal helping humans interact and live fuller lives. This Human-Animal bond is the dynamic relationship between people and animals; animals rely on humans for food, care and shelter and in return provide love and devotion. This can have a profound psychological influence on people. The relationship is even more intense if humans are disabled, where an animal can greatly enhance the quality of life of the individual, and the relationship can become more of a partnership, where each is dependent on the other.

Pet therapy can also help people with schizophrenia feel more motivated and improve their quality of day to day life. In particular children with autism and attention deficit disorder, who find it difficult to communicate with other people, can benefit greatly from the comfort and friendship of an animal. This is one of the many aspects of the Human-Animal bond.

Also, the acute sense of smell which dogs have enables rescuers with their trained dogs to locate humans in catastrophic situations such as earthquakes, avalanches, landslips, etc.

The Assistance Projects help to advance our own knowledge and understanding of the relationship between people and animals in order to raise awareness of and to improve the quality of life for people who could potentially benefit from animal assistance.