Therapy with dogs reduces emotional crises in children

Therapy with dogs allowed to reduce 75% of emotional crises among children in Barcelona's Hospital Clinic's children and youth mental health daycare center.

The health center has been studying how around 30 children between 8 and 12 react to the presence of these animals. 

The project's leaders confirmed that these dogs played a key role as an "emotional link" between the children and the professionals but also as a "facilitator."

The study has also helped to reduce absenteeism as "patients do not think they are going to treatment, but to see dogs such as Mel or Nina."

"Children are more relaxed during the treatment when the dogs are there; they even come more often to working groups, meaning we have less absenteeism. Quality speaking, for the health care workers, is much easier when the dogs are around, as they can work with the patients easier," Astrid Morer, head of the child psychology and psychiatry service in the daycare center, said to media outlets.

This research will now study how teenagers between 13 and 17 years old react to playing with animals