The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) on Sunday expressed optimism that together with the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), the pilot implementation of the ‘Angel Pets’ project would greatly enhance and expand the reach of animal-aided therapy in the Philippines.

Virginia Daniles, the head of the Sanctuary Center, said this during the first visit of the emotional-support ‘Doctor Dogs’ from PAWS on Saturday in the DSWD-managed residential care facility in Mandaluyong City.

"We're looking forward to sustaining this project as this is just the pilot implementation. I immediately saw the effects on the residents of our sanctuary. We hope to sustain their happiness and to apply this to other residential facilities," Daniles explained in a mix of English and Filipino.

The DSWD-PAWS Angel Pets joint project is a heartwarming initiative centered on animal-assisted therapy. It aims to enhance the therapeutic services in select centers and residential care facilities (CRCFs) managed by the DSWD.

Following the first meet and greet of the Dr. Dogs with the young girls at the Marillac Hills - National School and Training for Girls (NSTG) last 16 November, the visit to the adult-women from Sanctuary Center marked their second "duty." The project was launched in October.

Center Head Daniles said she is elated to see that the Angel Pets project has materialized, as even a mood shift is a big thing for their clients who have been abandoned, neglected, or are living with psycho-social disabilities.

Designed for healing

According to Daniles, the Angel Pets has three components designed to ensure that it will be a ‘high impact’ project even on its pilot implementation phase.

"The project components were studied by DSWD, led by the Social Technology Bureau because the goal was to really have a positive effect on our clients," Daniles explained.

The first component, ALAGA, which stands for Adaptive Life Assistance Given by Animals, includes the deployment of PAWS Dr. Dogs to residential care facilities and the conduct of weekly animal-assisted therapy sessions for targeted clients.

ARAL or Advocacy, Research and Learning component revolves around the development of materials for advocacy and education, along with offering hands-on workshops and online courses.

For the third component, the LUNAS SURI or Healing Assessment is focused on developing in-house assessment tools to monitor and evaluate therapy progress, gathering baseline and post-intervention scores, documenting client behavior and well-being in relation to the conducted therapy.

"The results of our weekly sessions are well documented and monitored so we can see the effects of our Dr. Dogs on the emotional well-being of our clients," Daniles said. "We're looking forward to placing the spotlight on the therapeutic power of pets and to seeing how we can maximize this at DSWD facilities and beyond."

PAWS also shared the DSWD’s optimism, citing the sessions conducted so far have served as significant strides toward highlighting the healing benefits of interactions with dogs.

“We are very happy that DSWD partnered with us for the long term because this is really what our Dr. Dogs volunteers were looking for. This is what they signed up for — they regularly visit and evaluate the effectiveness of the program," said Sharon Yap, PAWS Community Education Officer.

While the animal-assisted therapy in the country has been led by the PAWS’ Dr. Dogs for 20 years, both the PAWS and the DSWD are hopeful that the result of the pilot implementation will contribute in raising the efficiency of the cutting-edge approach.