I listen to talk radio. Tonight’s topic was with an author and Air Force Col. about PTSD. I called in asked about animal therapy, service dogs and theraputic riding for veterans. He thought that is a wonderful program.
One of my friends donated her sweet mule, Dante’, to a theraputic riding school here in the Valley for veterans. The veterans love him. How could you not?
I know of three people who run (or have run) PTSD therapy programs that use horses; two are mounted and one is ground work only. I think it can work when professionally done but is vastly more expensive than using small animals for obvious reasons. But I also know of several people who are completely unqualified to do this sort of work and are doing it anyway. And at least a couple have gotten “busted” for being frauds (soliciting and taking money from people to provide this service and then either not doing at all or doing it badly with unqualified help but keeping the money).
It can be part of a system, but first you have to have the system.
G.
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That’s a shame. I don’t think the place here is run by bad people. My friend with her mules is pretty picky on who her animals are with. She volunteers there also so she is on top of it all. I suppose there always has to one in the bunch.
Equine assisted learning is definitely on trend where I live. Equine assisted learning does experiential and group leadership type workshops, but doesn’t make any specific claims about actually doing counselling or therapy or psychology. So the barriers to starting a program are lower, you don’t need clinical psychologists on staff unlike if you are promising equine assisted therapy.
There’s an organization in Canada that has a week long, fairly expensive, but apparently useful course in equine assisted learning, and my guess is that everyone with a pasture and a pony and some free time on their hands is going to add this to their website. However, I’m not that sure there is much of demand for it on the user-pay market. The folks I know that have a coherent program up and running are focusing on kids at risk, and getting grant money from government agencies.
Agree with G., it’s all about the skills of the particular provider who’s providing the treatment. There are so many well intentioned people who talk the talk, but don’t have the credentials or the experience. I feel badly for the families who are desperate for help and spend a pile of money on something that may or may not be what they need.
There is a great program near me, but I don’t think they are doing any work with veterans anymore. They struggled to get grant money and insurance coverage. In its place, they’ve added additional classes for autistic children and children with severe physical handicaps. Apparently it’s much easier to get that therapy covered.
There is an accrediting organization for therapeutic riding (PATH International) who have educational and training materials for programs that offer PTSD services and who ensure a standard of professionalism and care in the centers accredited by them. There are shady operators in many fields, but IME in therapeutic riding you can separate the wheat from the vast majority of the chaff by checking accreditation of the center and credentials/experience of the instructor/provider. You’ll still find individual variation in the abilities of instructors or therapists, just like you find variation in the quality of care offered by M.D.s or the quality of teachers in schools, but looking for PATH credentials dramatically diminishes the likelihood of encountering someone with zero training or being a victim of the kind of fraud you describe.
As for small animals being a cheaper equivalent to horses for PTSD, it depends. IME there are grants for vetrans’ riding programs that help to offset costs, and many centers are able to spread the costs that aren’t funded by grants or donations in creative ways. Horses are expensive, but IME participants in EAAT do not bear the full expense of equestrianism – all of the veterans’ programs I’m personally familiar with are offered at no cost to the participant. At the same time, equine programs offer a benefit that small animal programs typically do not: outdoor time. In contrast to small animal therapy programs, equine assisted therapy typically involves being outdoors, or at the very least in a barn environment, and there’s increasing scientific evidence that spending time outdoors has significant psychological and other health benefits. If physical activity on a horse outdoors is more effective than petting a pup in a community center room, then it might be well worth the added expense.
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