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What if we included domesticated animals, and in particular dogs, into the recovery plans of people struggling with addictions? Working alongside community and academic partners, hear about Dr. Dell's animal assisted intervention research and practice focusing on healing from addictions and mental health.
The foundation of Dr. Dell's work is situated within a One Health & Wellness framework.
“One Health is the collaborative effort of multiple health science professions, together with their related disciplines and institutions – working locally, nationally, and globally – to attain optimal health for people, domestic animals, wildlife, plants, and our environment.” One Health Commission.
Key to One Health is zoonosis - the transfer of disease from animals to humans. This article addresses how a One Health pan-species approach can help us understand the current pandemic and ward off the next one. A favorite line of Dr. Dell's in the article is that "No one is safe unless everything is safe". That includes human, animal and planetary health.
Related, Dr. Dell's work increasingly recognizes the anthropocene, which is the current time period in which human-kind has caused lasting impacts on the environment. In response she consider post-humanism in her work, which de-centres the human experiences.
Dr. Dell’s Chair builds on another component of One Health and that is zooeyia. Zooeyia is defined as “the positive benefits to human health from interacting with animals, focusing on the companion animal” Hodgson & Darling, 2011.
To learn more about zooeyia and a One Health approach from Dr. Dell, you can listen here and to her TedX Talk here, or read here.
Click here to learn how Dr. Dell considers animals a part of her team and she is guided by positive animal welfare.
