The cow shed – an arena of achievement and mastery

Janne Karin Brodin

Working and interacting with farm animals may lead to an increased sense of achievement and a reduction of depression in people with clinical depression. This has been established in a doctoral study at Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB).

The study shows that there is a connection between reduced anxiety and depression and carrying out complex and somewhat difficult tasks, such as milking and moving animals.

Tiltak innen Grønn omsorg kan være et nyttig supplement i psykisk helsearbeid, sier stipendiat Ingeborg Pedersen ved UMB. Photo: Janne Brodin

-Handling a milking machine or daring to enter the stall of such a large animal as a cow is demanding, and can give the participants a sense of achievement when they accomplish it, says PhD student Ingeborg Pedersen, who has conducted the study for her doctoral thesis at UMB.

In the study, people with clinical depression were offered a 12 week intervention consisting of working alongside the farmer with the cows on a working farm for two days a week. The participants were either fully or partially out of the working life.

Getting to mastery
By registering the levels of faith in one’s own ability to master various tasks on the one hand and depression and anxiety on the other before and after the intervention, Pedersen concluded that acquiring new skills and experiencing achievement can have positive effects on our mental health.

-In interviews, the participants revealed that they experience achievement and mastery when they see that they are able to handle new tasks – and more and more new tasks, says Pedersen.

The experience of achievement as an equal-terms colleague
Within the field of mental health and rehabilitation there are many interventions that aim at increasing the clients’ sense of achievement. In this intervention, the participants experienced achievement in an everyday work situation in contrast to their illness. Working alongside the farmer and being an appreciated and useful equal-terms colleague was important.

-This intervention can be experienced as different from some other rehabilitation interventions, more like an ordinary workplace, says Pedersen.

Varied tasks
The jobs to be done in the cow shed were many and diverse. The participants could choose what tasks they wanted to have, and could adjust the work according to their day-to-day health condition. It was therefore possible simply to be around and to pet the animals.

There were great differences between the participants in how much they participated in the various tasks and how much time they spent in contact with the animals.

People diagnosed with clinical depression might achieve better mental health by working and have contact with farm animals Photo: Janne Brodin

The group in the cow shed showed the greatest improvement
A total of 29 participants were split into two groups. One group continued with their usual treatment regime alone, while the other group also participated in the intervention in the cow shed. The conventional regime consisted of some form of conversation therapy, and most of the participants also received medication.

The registrations that were done consisted of filling in forms relating to mental health, in-depth interviews and analyses of video recordings from the cow shed.

The results show that those participants who spent time in the cow shed experienced a greater change in the form of reduced depression and increased confidence in their own ability to master tasks than those who only received conventional treatment. However, when the groups were compared, there was no statistically significant difference between them.

Employee and client all in oneThe flexibility was important to the participants. On days where they felt under the weather, they did not have to do the same things as on better days.

-It was a positive experience for the participants to be in a regular working situation. At the same time, it was important to them that they be shown consideration; that they were in fact ill and had good days and bad days. This was addressed through the flexibility of the intervention, says Pedersen.

The importance of contact with the farmer and the animals
The participants experienced the contact with the farmer as an important part of the intervention. This is also clearly demonstrated in the results.

-Those who from the video recordings were seen to have the most dialogue with the farmer had a greater reduction in anxiety. This may mean that the participants experienced the close contact with the farmer as positive, says Pedersen.

Even if it was not evident from the video, the interviews with the participants made it clear that the contact with the animals was also an important part of the intervention. This contact consisted both in the jobs they performed with and for the animals and in petting and cuddling the animals.

-It seems that having jobs to do in relation to the animals was more rewarding than just being in contact with them, says Pedersen.

Green care
The interest in interventions within Green care is increasing, and the numbers of farms that offer Green care activities of various kinds has grown considerably during the last few years. Green care is an umbrella term covering a wide range of health promoting activities relating to the use of nature.

NAV (The Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration) sees what they term Green work as work rehabilitation as well as an intervention to help people with mental health issues get back in the saddle again, says Pedersen.

Not an alternative to conventional treatment
Since depression and mental health issues have such extensive consequences for each individual as well as for society as a whole, it is necessary to have a wide variety of means to counteract them.

Several of the participants later told us that the intervention had helped turn their illness for the better. They saw the intervention as an important part of their improved condition, and were of the opinion that they had experienced changes that would remain with them.

Pedersen emphasizes that Green care interventions for people with clinical depression are meant as a supplement to conventional treatment.

-Unfortunately, relapses are quite common with depression, and many do not get full effect of medicines and conversational therapy. In these situations, combining these with other types of interventions may be beneficial, says Pedersen.

Green care or Green work may be suitable as an additional intervention for those who are interested in nature and in being around animals.

-Green care interventions where work in the cow shed is the only option are not the norm, but the care for and contact with animals are common elements of the activities on Green care farms. This study has been done to investigate this particular part of the Green care concept, Pedersen concludes.

A collaborative project
This PhD study has been carried out in co-operation with professor in psychiatry Egil W. Martinsen of University of Oslo. Professor Bjarne O. Braastad at UMB has been the main supervisor. The project was financed by the Agricultural Research Fund and the Research Council of Norway.

Updated: 30.05.11
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