By Holly Mcguinness
It’s no secret that people and pets have a special bond but now a new study will determine whether having a pet around can decrease loneliness and improve wellbeing within at-risk groups.
Led by the National Centre for Healthy Ageing (NCHA) the federally funded study is in partnership with Monash University and Peninsula Health and will inform national approaches to tackle loneliness in ageing Australians.
Monash University researcher Dr Em Bould, has been studying human-animal interactions for six years and this new study will expand to focus on older people, and individuals of migrant and refugee backgrounds.
Highlighting the study’s importance, Dr Bould explained that loneliness and social isolation not only have a detrimental effect on physical health, but can also cause increased incidences of depression and suicide.
“The ultimate aim of the program is to use pets to support social connection and healthy ageing, and we are looking forward to seeing the results from this important research,” Dr Bould said.
Through a pilot study, Dr Bould and their team will focus on the benefits that regular animal centred interactions have between individuals with a shared interest in animals.
Bringing animals into aged care homes has been implemented for a while now, but Dr Bould said there’s little objective research into how the addition of pets actually impacts aged care residents or refugee and migrant groups.
Previous studies by Dr Bould highlighted how pets can help to facilitate human interactions and using a dog as the catalyst, they observed animals do in fact encourage human interactions.
This upcoming study will expand on this to explore if encouraged interactions using animals can decrease feelings of isolation and loneliness.
Volunteers will be enrolled from May 2023 to partake in the Pets and People (PaPs) Program, consisting of a low-cost animal activity group in an aged care setting and researchers will also include migrant and refugee communities.
The study is one of 13 NCHA Living Labs projects to share in $4.77 million of funding and up to four partner aged care facilities will take part across Melbourne and Queensland with 36 participants in total.
