IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v20y2023i7p5272-d1108477.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reimagining Healthcare: Human–Animal Bond Support as a Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Public Health Intervention

Author

Listed:
  • Janet Hoy-Gerlach

    (OneHealth People-Animal Wellness Services (OHPAWS), Toledo, OH 43606, USA)

  • Lisa Townsend

    (Center for Human-Animal Interaction (CHAI), Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284, USA
    Departments of Pediatrics and Psychiatry, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284, USA
    Children’s Hospital of Richmond, Richmond, VA 23230, USA)

Abstract

The emergence of human–animal support services (HASS)—services provided to help keep people and their companion animals together—in the United States has been driven by two global public health crises. Despite such impetuses and an increasing recognition of One Health approaches, HASS are generally not recognized as public health interventions. The Ottawa Charter, defining health as well-being and resources for living and calling for cross-sector action to advance such, provides a clear rationale for locating HASS within a public health framework. Drawing from Ottawa Charter tenets and using the United States as a case study, we: (1) recognize and explicate HASS as public health resources for human and animal well-being and (2) delineate examples of HASS within the three-tiered public health intervention framework. HASS examples situated in the three-tier framework reveal a public health continuum for symbiotic well-being and health. Humans and their respective companion animals may need different levels of intervention to optimize mutual well-being. Tenets of the Ottawa Charter provide a clear rationale for recognizing and promoting HASS as One Health public health interventions; doing so enables cross-sector leveraging of resources and offers a symbiotic strategy for human and animal well-being.

Suggested Citation

  • Janet Hoy-Gerlach & Lisa Townsend, 2023. "Reimagining Healthcare: Human–Animal Bond Support as a Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Public Health Intervention," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(7), pages 1-12, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:7:p:5272-:d:1108477
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/7/5272/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/7/5272/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:7:p:5272-:d:1108477. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.