Supportive treatment and use of animals for therapeutic use in persons with disabilities

Abstract

Complementary methods to treat people with various types of disabilities often involve the use of animals for therapeutic purposes. In recent decades, among others advocates dolphins-assisted therapy. The aim of this paper is to review the literature and show the possibilities, limitations and problems in realization dolphins-assisted therapy in the treatment of people with disabilities. By researching of electronic databases Serbian Library Consortium for Coordinated Acquisition – KoBSON papers in which we processed theme dolphins-assisted therapy were collected and analyzed. The results of the survey showed that many of the studies the authors uncritically cite excellent results for people with disabilities after the application of these complementary methods. In addition to numerous serious methodological limitations, the main criticism of these studies is reflected in the fact that he found no scientifically proven fact about the healing powers of dolphins. It is also important to mention the various difficulties in the realization of this treatment as well as the possibility for abuse of dolphins, unavailability of treatment, (no) training therapists, prices and other.

Komplementarne metode u tretmanu osoba sa različitim smetnjama često podrazumevaju upotrebu životinja u terapeutske svrhe. Poslednjih decenija se, između ostalih, zagovara i terapija uz pomoć delfina. Cilj ovog rada je da se pregledom dostupne literature ukaže na mogućnosti, ograničenja i probleme u realizaciji terapije uz pomoć delfina u tretmanu osoba sa smetnjama u razvoju. Pretragom elektronske baze podataka Konzorcijuma biblioteke Srbije za objedinjenu nabavku - KoBSON, prikupljeni su i analizirani radovi u kojima je obrađivana tema terapije delfinima. Rezultati sprovedenih istraživanja su pokazali da autori mnogih studija nekritički navode izuzetne rezultate kod osoba sa invaliditetom nakon primene ove komplementarne metode. Pored brojnih ozbiljnih metodoloških ograničenja, glavna kritika u vezi sa ovim studijama se ogleda u tome da nije pronađena nijedna naučno potvrđena činjenica o isceliteljskim moćima delfina. Značajno je, takođe, pomenuti i različite teškoće u realizovanju ovog tretmana, kao što su mogućnosti zloupotrebe delfina, nedostupnost tretmana, (ne)obučenost terapeuta, cena tretmana i druge.