About the Center Established in the VCU School of Medicine in June 2001, and housed in the Department of Psychiatry, the purpose of the Center for Human-Animal Interaction is to provide a formal structure for and promote interdisciplinary and interinstitutional research, clinical, and educational activities related to the human-animal relationship. Our Mission Improving health and well being through human-animal interaction. To achieve our mission, our research goal is to increase knowledge of the benefits of the human-animal interaction through interdisciplinary research. Our clinical goal is to enhance health and well being for patients and other members of our community through animal-assisted interventions. Our educational goal is to improve understanding of the benefits of the human-animal interaction.
