The term pet therapy, or AAT ( Animal-Assisted Therapy ), means a sweet therapeutic system focused on the interaction between humans and animals.
Even today, there is no clear and precise national legal definition of procedures and minimum requirements necessary to carry out the activity of pet therapy.
In fact, it is up to the Regions to legislate and regulate on the matter. The result is a heterogeneous panorama, made up of self-managed and self-certified work environments, characterized by often different operating methods.
Pet therapy and institutions
On the website of the Ministry of Health are listed pet therapy experiences and projects in Italy. A reference for pet therapy in Italy is the Italian Pet Therapy Association, established in 1998. On the web it is also possible to find a list of pet therapy centers.
AIPATA is the Italian Professional Association of Activity Operators and Therapies with Animals . Established in Rome in 2007, AIPATA brings together and certifies those who in Italy professionally carry out activities and animal mediation therapies, both as associations, independent or employees of social-health structures.
By contacting these associations, it is possible to obtain information on pet therapy centers in Italy.
It is important to first obtain information on specialized centers . During a pet therapy session in a pet therapy center there will almost always be a therapist (psychologist, an educator, etc.), an animal trainer or handler, a veterinarian and other social workers.
As far as the social-health sector is concerned, which in recent years is increasingly employing Activities with Animals to complement conventional rehabilitation therapies, it is important that the pet therapist is a regulated profession, in order to identify and qualify the operators who own the prerequisites necessary for its development.
Pet therapy center in Rome
To find a pet therapy center in Rome, just connect to some site. The ANUCS, based in Rome, consists of a team of specialists, doctors, veterinarians, educators, social workers, dog trainers and psychologists, suggesting programs of activities and therapies aimed at children and the elderly.
For hippotherapy, the "L'Auriga" Association, at the Riding Club of Via della Marcigliana, offers horse and horse therapy hippotherapy for people with disabilities.
Within the Magliana district, the Scuola Viva Association includes a zootherapy laboratory designed to develop a cure through contact with dogs, horses and farmyard animals, to obtain sensory, acoustic, visual, olfactory and tactile stimulation and improvement. of affectivity and self-esteem, always in a context of socialization and play.
Pet therapy centers in Turin and Milan
Turin is the first city in Italy that has decided to apply pet therapy in three care facilities . The Turin structures that acted as a " forerunner " were the residence for the elderly in Via Valgioie, the Casa Serena in Corso Lombardia and the Carlo Alberto Institute in Corso Casale. A Rivoli, within the dog track center GARU, Group Friends Breeds Utilities, is implemented a program of therapy assisted by dogs, aimed at people with mild intellectual deficits.
Milan instead of training schools and pet therapy centers. The Dogymclub association, a pet therapy center and professional cinechnical school, offers a laboratory that aims to increase, through observation and management of the dogs in the center, the ability to concentrate relationships and motor skills of the participants as well as refine the their ability to manage new or problematic situations and improve behavioral and organizational effectiveness in the group.
The Animal Protection of Legnano is active in training the pet therapist and raising public awareness.
In Sesto San Giovanni there is SPAZIOPERNOI, an association for the study of the relationship with animals. He deals with projects of Assistant Zooantropology with the Dog and the Horse, projects of Educational Zooantroplogy in schools, consultancy of Urban Zooanthropology for administrations and kennels, training for kennel operators, training for pet therapy pairs, canine activities.
Other Lombard centers in which pet therapy is practiced are the Cà Granda hospital unit, the Cà Geriatric Institute of Industry and United Places, the integrated day center for the elderly "Costa Bassa", the socio-educational center of Lecco and the Arcobaleno Therapeutic Community of the Fatebenefratelli hospital.
