#MentalHealthWeek2015

Just to be sure of something we already know, I jumped on the Uni library search engine to search scholarly articles on the role of animals in improving mental health. As anticipated I got hundreds of hits for journals and books across many disciplines (psychology, nursing, biology, vet science etc etc) on the positive influences of animals on people. The most common outcome of the animal/human interaction was an improvement in well-being, an increase in social connectivity and increase in accountability and responsibility among the test subjects.

It seems apparent to me that, based on what we do know about humans and the influence of cute and cuddly animals on their mental health it is all sweetness and light, fairies, rainbows and unicorns. But what if the animals are not cute, furry, cuddly and endothermic (warm-blooded)? Can the 'less well-loved fauna' have the same affect?

Moreover, there is one very important facet of mental health what is scarcely apparent in the published literature and that is the importance of that feeling of achievement and accomplishment on a persons self-worth.

If only there was an animal group that could not only boost the feeling of well being in humans but also amplify that feeling with a solid dose of accomplishment.

It has been quite some time since I have done a Venomous Snake Relocation Course and I have never, ever thought about the outcomes of the training from a mental health perspective. It just happened to be that this course was booked and then executed during Mental Health Week. 

Now, I have to be very, very, very clear and explicit here: this course had absolutely nothing to do with the improvement in the mental health of the trainees and I make no assumptions about their state of mind!! It's just that we had so much fun during the course, and due to the coincidental timing I started to look at training I do from a completely different perspective.

Fear, trepidation and introversion are a couple of the key traits that prevent people from truly experiencing the wonders of life. Unfortunately, some people stand so far back from the edge that they miss so much of the world around them. So when you bring a group of people together that don't know each other well, and you put them in a room with a bunch of reptiles you are bound to drag a few out of the cocoons within which they surround themselves. 

When those same people are nurtured through what is sometimes their very first close encounter with some of the world's most venomous snakes and then coached through techniques to manipulate and safely capture these snakes, the outcome for some is almost euphoric. 

I've been doing this for well over ten years now and, although I knew very well that the trainees were having a great time, I never once considered the net positive impacts that our least-loved fauna may actually be having on their mental health.