Four Legged Friends Shown to Improve Road to Recovery;
Could Australia Follow?

With a London health authority now prescribing pets instead of pills to improve patients' well-being, could Australia follow?

According to the Petcare Information and Advisory Service (PIAS), the London program is a result of a wide range of research that shows owning a pet improves health.

In its pilot stages, the initiative underway in the southeast London suburb of Lewisham is aimed at cutting down hospital admissions of regular patients, especially those with depression. Patients are assigned a case worker and a budget, and the budget can be used to purchase items and services that will improve a patient's quality of life – including a pet.

"Animals are often able to break down some of the barriers that people with depression can experience," PIAS consultant Denise Humphries said. "They provide a sense of companionship and comfort, and doors can begin to open again for people who may have been feeling isolated.

Evidence also suggests that caring for a pet can help patients recover faster. "They feel more connected to the world around them and undertake increased activity, so certainly the pet prescription program underway in London is based on some solid research findings, " Ms Humphries said.

Dogs in particular can positively impact the lifestyle and circumstances which can lead to chronic illness, by providing a motivation to exercise regularly.

With physical inactivity a major risk factor for more than half of the Australian population, according to the Australian Government's Department of Health and Ageing, anything that encourages daily exercise is – literally – a step in the right direction, Dr Nancy Huang, Assistant Executive Director, Kinect Australia said.

"Walking a dog briskly for 30 minutes a day delivers health benefits, especially if the walker would not have previously undertaken exercise," she said.

According to Dr Huang, Australians are becoming more open to lifestyle prescriptions or non-pill therapies and, with support from the Federal Government, GPs can now encourage patients to adopt healthier lifestyles, through the Lifescripts initiative, and provide advice and support for healthier living.

"Many doctors make better use of the therapeutic benefits of pet ownership, both in helping to prevent illness and in assisting patients to recover faster," she said.

"And programs where dogs visit hospital patients or residents of aged care facilities are both popular and have proven benefits.

"I don't know whether Australia is ready to begin Medicare rebates for pet ownership! However, the London initiative is certainly an interesting one and it underscores the growing body of evidence that suggests pet ownership can be antidote to some social and physical problems."

This evidence includes research from the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of NSW which shows that if all dog-owners regularly walked their dogs there would be substantial savings in health costs, and a report from the Melbourne Institute of Economic and Social Research found pet owners visit the doctor 4.9 times a year compared to 5.6 times for non pet owners. A University of Pennsylvania study found that heart attack patients with a pet were more likely to survive.

Article printed courtesy of Petnet