This article provides a review of research published since 1990 on the beneficial effects of healing therapy programs with farm animals. Although animal-assisted intervention for humans with mental disorders has been well documented with companion animals like as cats and dogs, there is a complete lack of controlled studies of farm animals as therapeutic agents for patients with several disorders. Previous studies of animal-assisted intervention with companion animals have documented that human-animal interaction may decrease stress levels, and is shown to improve self-confidence, social competence and quality of life. As it is shown that different types of animals may have different impact on people's health, it is therefore worth investigating to what extent contact and work with farm animals will contribute to self-efficacy, coping ability and quality of life among psychiatric patients. Future research employing more rigorous designs and systematically building upon a clearly defined line of inquiry is needed to advance our knowledge on the potential beneficial effects of the healing therapy programs trough animal-assisted intervention with farm animals.

This study was conducted to investigate awareness and needs for care farming in South Korea. A questionnaire that includes 20 questions was developed for this study. The survey was answered by the 1,302 respondents who lived in the six cities such as Seoul, Incheon, Daejeon, Daegu, Ulsan, and Gwangju in the period of October 2016. The respondents who were aged over 20 years were recruited by a convenience sampling method. As the results, 50.4% and 40.1% of the respondents reported ‘Know nothing’ and ‘Know of care farming’, respectively. The experience for participating in care farming was low (29.0%). The purposes of participating in care farming reported as experience (31.4%), leisure (25.0%), and education (21.0%). Frequency of visiting for care farming complex was daily (44.3%) and 1 night 2days-3nights 4days (32.9%). Moreover, 67.7% of potential consumers had intention of paying the care farming fee. The acceptable fee reported as an average 11,339 won per day. In addition, needs for care farming complex was very high in the respondents with or without disease. The present study is anticipated to support the needs for care farming complex and provides reference data for administers in care farming.