The benefits of using case studies to record outcomes
A case study approach is particularly useful to employ when there is a need to obtain an appreciation of an issue, event or phenomenon of interest, in its natural real-life context. Case studies are ideal for sharing new information and provide the necessary context for justifying changes to those accustomed to the old way of doing things.
This article contains several case studies we have produced for funders to illustrate the benefits of EAL for various participants.
Gaining trust and confidence
THE CHALLENGE
X has been experiencing low levels of confidence along with feelings of dissatisfaction and lack of direction in her personal life. She also reported losing trust in others and had begun to avoid social activities.
THE ACTION
EAL helps enhance focus and attention, improves confidence and self-esteem, and encourages social interaction. To help address X’s issues, we used different horses to highlight different issues and approaches to challenges. When initially asked to lead Jake, X explained that she had thoughts like ‘I won’t be able to do that’ and ‘what if this doesn’t work?’ and this initially stopping her from connecting with Jake. After she dropped these thoughts and was able to be ‘in the moment’, she realised the truth was she could do it and it did work. This was a huge boost to her confidence. Later X used Tammy but getting her to stand still while being groomed or to walk beside her was not as easy as it had been with Jake. Through Tammy, X learned that asking firmly and respectfully for her own needs to be met was more effective than the apologetic approach she had been taking before, and she recognised that she should trust in her own judgment, rather than just trust in others.
THE OUTCOME
X’s EAL sessions continue to focus on several issues:
Regaining trust in others by learning to trust herself and her own judgment.
Recognising the need to regain her motivation and to feel in control of her life again.
Learning how to gain respect with clear communication, confidence, and determination.
Learning to believe in herself by challenging her self-talk and unhelpful beliefs.
EAL continues to help X recognise and resolve these areas during her weekly sessions with the horses. Due to the experiential nature of the sessions, X can see very quickly the negative thoughts that are in her life, how she contributes to them and what alternative actions she can take to overcome them. These interactive experiences with the horses give her a broader range of responses to choose from in day-to-day situations which would normally cause her to withdraw into self-doubt and depression.
Scott House: Work-experience and life skills
THE CHALLENGE
Scott House offers a range of activities both in the community and in-house. Everyone is involved in deciding what they do. They aim to maintain or improve independence skills and give people interesting and enjoyable days.
Scott House, offer a service for people from the age of 18 upwards with a range of disabilities including learning, physical and acquired brain injuries. We also support some individuals with dementia.
Scott House was looking for additional activities to challenge and engage their service users. These service users broadly fell in to two groups: Those looking to for volunteering opportunities, where they could undertake physical activities and gain work-experience, and those looking to improve their confidence and communication skills.
Early in 2023, following a recommendation from staff at the Chappell Centre in Spalding, Scott House approached IdEAL and following a site visit decided to send 2 groups to participate in their project.
THE ACTION
Two groups from Scott House attended IdEAL at Sunset Farm, Fosdyke. The first group focused on work-experience and volunteering, and undertook various stable management tasks, including making up feeds and hay nets, mucking out stables, and poo picking paddocks. They also received feedback about the tasks and why they are important from IdEAL staff. The second group participated in activities with the horses and donkeys; this included grooming and leading them around an obstacle course. The focus for this group was building confidence, understanding body language, the importance of clear and consistent communication and teamwork.
THE OUTCOME
Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) is a unique learning experience and a valuable form of therapy for individuals with learning disabilities. EAL helps enhance focus and attention, improves self-esteem, encourages social interaction, enhances sensory processing, and builds physical skills. Both groups grew in confidence and clearly demonstrated their ability to understand and follow instructions from IdEAL staff. Caring for horses allowed those with disabilities from Scott House, who typically lack autonomy, to reverse their normally assigned roles, as they went from being the person receiving care to being the caregiver. Having these responsibilities helped them to appreciate and improve their interactions with those around them, (staff, other service users and family/carers). The activities also helped improve their levels of physical fitness and coordination. Due to the benefits of their sessions to date, both groups are still fully engaged with the project and plan to continue their participation for as long as possible.
Reducing anxiety and returning to education
THE CHALLENGE
Z had always been interested in horses and so considered IdEAL’s project a perfect way to help with her acute anxiety and give her some useful work experience as she had left school with no qualifications and had very little experience of employment. Ultimately, Z wanted to return to education and study art.
Z thoroughly enjoyed attending her initial 1-2-1 sessions at IdEAL as they were held in a safe, supportive, and relaxed environment, and they rekindled her desire to study art. Z decided that joining our project would be an ideal way to improve her confidence and reduce her anxiety and so assist her future career plans of returning to education.
THE ACTION
Z joined our project which included EAL sessions to help with confidence, self-esteem, and social interactions, offered equine work-experience and training. The grooming, leading, mucking out and learning about horse and stable management in a supportive environment, helped her enormously. Z was joined at the centre by other people who were also struggling with physical and mental health issues; she enjoyed meeting, getting to know and working with them. Z found that the leading and grooming greatly improved her confidence and over time she found that her social anxiety reduced, and she found it easier to take part in the activities and talk to others. Her confidence increased further when we introduced long- reining into the sessions, as this required Z to control a horse from the ground using two lunge lines and her voice, initially she was very self-conscious doing this, but rapidly overcome this when she witnessed the results she was able to achieve.
THE OUTCOME
Z’s mental health has significantly improved since she joined the project and she feels she has achieved both her initial goals of reducing her social anxiety, improving confidence and learning new skills. She is now confident to perform certain tasks (e.g., picking out hooves and mixing up the horse’s feeds), with minimal supervision. The manual tasks on the project have also helped improve her physical fitness. By helping her reduce her anxiety and social isolation Z feels far more confident and last summer decided to pursue her desire to study art and enrolled at college. Given how Z was struggling with anxiety and social isolation when she started her journey with IdEAL, we feel that she has made amazing progress to achieve her ambition and return to full time education to study art.
