Insight: June 11

Tonight on Insight Jennie Brockie takes a look at how animals can have a positive impact on a person’s health.

Guide dogs for the visually impaired were once the most common type of assistance animal. Now animals are being used to help people with a range of physical and mental impairments including Autism, PTSD and epilepsy. But with increasing use has come the need for changes to laws and regulation.

Guests:

Isaac Adams
“I haven’t suffered from PTSD in two years and I’m the best I’ve ever been…I attribute it all to horses.”

Jodie Mizzi
“Charlie is seven and he was diagnosed with autism when he was three. Just by Charlie patting him or by Yahtzee leaning his head against his lap really gets that sensory system going where Charlie’s feeling a lot calmer.”

Dani Stevens
“Your general epilepsy medication that you would take every day, I don’t respond to … Baloo was the next best thing because …my seizures couldn’t be controlled.”

Paul Harpur
“You’ve got a real regulatory framework that is making it complicated for people who are training animals, they don’t know what animal will be protected and won’t be protected.”

8:30pm Tuesday on SBS.