A responding to commentary: “Recognizing the role of animal-assisted therapies in addressing mental health needs during the COVID-19 pandemic”

Abstract

The outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has started since early 2020 and has led to extensive morbidity and mortality (Arango et al., 2020; Galea et al., 2020). Social distancing, school closures, and reduced access to health services during the COVID-19 have disrupted the daily routines of many individuals and have increased senses of loneliness, depression, anxiety, and suicidal behaviour among young people (Singh et al., 2020; Wasserman et al., 2020). According to the UNESCO, schools have been suspended in 188 countries in mid-2020, and over 90 % of 1.5 billion young people worldwide were severely impacted (Lee, 2020).

Hong Kong is one of the earliest cities to have identified COVID-19 infected cases and schools were closed accordingly. The COVID-19 related strains impaired many students and families and led to increased level of stress, anxiety, and depression in Hong Kong (Zhao et al., 2020). All schools in Hong Kong had adapted online learning activities when schools were closed but it was found that many students reported decreased learning interests due to the home environment related limitations and were distracted because of high usage of electronic devices without parental monitoring (Lau and Lee, 2020).

Nagendrappa et al. (2020) pointed out that interacting with animals provide a sense of companionship and security to humans, and animal-assisted interventions (AAI) have a place to address the mental health needs for many individuals during the COVID-19. We concur and believe that the presence of trained animals in AAIs may remove some of the obstacles in engaging young children during school closures. In mid-2020, we transformed some of the face-to-face animal-assisted learning activities of our Competence in Active Resilience for Kids curriculum (CARing Kids) (Ngai et al., 2021a) to online learning. The CARing Kids is a six-session animal-assisted humane and social-emotional learning education programme implemented in primary schools by trained mental health professionals that has led to increased cognitive competence and reduced hyperactivity among the students (Ngai et al., 2021b).

The main aims for converting the CARing Kids to online learning were to enhance students’ motivation to learn and stay connected with other students, teachers, and the reading canines in a relaxed learning environment during school closures. To maintain students’ learning motivation on the easily distracted digital platform, we (1) converted the self-developed physical storybooks into e-books, (2) invited reading canines’ handlers to pre-record videos of their interactions with the canines, and (3) invited the reading canines to ‘talk’ to the students about their daily life during social distancing to teach them how to maintain a hygienic and healthy lifestyle under the pandemic.

By far, 570 primary three students in seven schools had participated in our online learning. The involved teachers indicated that students were very engaged and attentive to the online lessons and some students reported feeling less lonely when they could interact with the reading canines and the handlers. Social isolation and loneliness have already been prevalent among different age groups before the pandemic and could be worsened during and after the pandemic (Luchetti et al., 2020; Wong, 2020). Using telemental health to improve people’s mental well-being is becoming more prevalent in developed countries (Holmes et al., 2020). Delivering AAI through online platforms can be an alternative way of engaging isolated individuals. However, a recent umbrella review of 15 systematic reviews of AAI studies had poor research rigor that may hamper the acceptability of practicing AAI widely among the mental health professionals (Santaniello et al., 2020). We believe that now is the right moment to review, rethink, and reshape how AAI research and practices can become more impactful to enhance the well-being of both human and non-human beings in the post−COVID-19 era.