CALL

Up until now, IAHAIO has focused on developing standards for practice in Animal Assisted Services (AASs). We now launch a call to develop such standards for research. Until now, guidelines for research have been exclusively developed by researchers who may not be aware of the full scope of practice and education.

IAHAIO is calling for expressions of interest from researchers, practitioners and educators with experience or interest in the field AASs to develop these minimum standards collaboratively. We also welcome those engaged in Human-Animal Interaction (HAI). The future standards will:

  • Encourage both basic and applied research to promote evidence based practice (i.e., cross-domain knowledge sharing)
  • Promote consistent use of terminology in line with latest developments
  • Facilitate transparency of treatment procedures and protocols between all stakeholders
  • Promote research that can be readily incorporated into educational curricula and/or practices
  • Be disseminated toward those involved in the field of HAI/AASs

BACKGROUND

In line with our mission to provide leadership in advancing the multidisciplinary field of HAI and AASs, IAHAIO is an umbrella organization, covering (1) education & training, (2) practice and (3) research. We bridge the interests of all stakeholders and aim for a synergy instead of prioritizing the interests of one group above the other. Therefore, we collaborate and aim to address the needs of all domains simultaneously.

IAHAIO identifies that collaboration between researchers, educators and practitioners can and should be intensified. Various potential causes explain current levels of collaboration:

  • Conflicting ethical codes and practices;
    • e.g., researchers’ ethical codes expect the full study process to be designed in advance. Difficult to anticipate issues concerning animal well-being (e.g. opting out)
    • e.g., practitioners’ ethical codes complicating the involvement of researchers (e.g. privacy)
  • Lack of funding bodies which award researcher-educator-practitioner collaborations
  • Lack of standardization or consistency in AAS practices and terminology
  • Lack of clarity about the existing practices and protocols

GOAL

It is in everyone’s interest to enhance the evidence base in the field of AASs. For researchers, these standards will encourage rigorous, generalizable and reproducible research. For practitioners and educators, collaboration with researchers will increase their program’s profile (e.g., with regard to funding, insurance), and may provide scientific evidence about their AASs programs.

TIMELINE

We anticipate that the project will run between July 2023 and July 2025. The first online meeting will take place on Thursday 6 July 2023 (exact timing to be decided based on geographical distribution of the working group). A first working group session/workshop will be held at the online IAHAIO conference towards the end of 2023.

CONTACT

Please express any interest [including a very short summary of your experience and your geographical location] or request for further information by 23 June at latest to Joni Delanoeije: policy@iahaio.org