Companion Animals and Vulnerable Youth: Promoting Engagement between Youth and Professional Service Providers
Abstract
Vulnerable youth have fewer social ties as a result of inadequate housing and a lack of social support. It is well established that many of these youth tend to underutilize mental health, medical, and social services. Among marginalized and stigmatized populations, the affirming and nonjudgmental presence of companion animals appears to be important for developing collaborative relationships between youth and professional service providers. This paper reviews literature on the benefits of companion animals for assisting providers in their attempts to help youth find a stable living environment. Recommendations are made for providers considering incorporating therapy animals into their existing services.
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AAIs have been repeatedly shown to be an effective tool to assist with engagement and rapport building.
“AAIs have been repeatedly shown to be an effective tool to assist with engagement and rapport building [9, 37, 51, 52].”
From Incorporating animal-assisted therapy in mental health treatments for adolescents: A systematic review of canine assisted psychotherapy (2019) · cites this paper as [52]
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References 15 · Cited by 19
- Authors
- Maharaj, N.
- Affiliations
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Maharaj, Nandini
- ORCID
- Maharaj, Nandini
- Venue
- Journal of Loss and Trauma
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2015-09-25
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 335-343
- ISSN
- 1532-5024 (ISSN-L)
- 1532-5032
- OpenAlex
- W2288911560
- Cited by
- 19
- References
- 15
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 2
- FWCI
- 0.46
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Loss and Trauma (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Human-Animal Interaction Studies
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Homelessness and Social Issues
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
- Keywords
- companion animals, therapy animals, vulnerable youth, child and adolescent mental health services, social support, housing instability, stigma, service utilization
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Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
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