What Are Psychiatric Service Dogs?
Psychiatric Service Animal Defined:
Psychiatric service dogs (PSDs) are specially trained canines that provide crucial support to individuals living with mental health conditions. It’s estimated that 1 in 4 Americans experience mental health challenges, including depression, anxiety attacks, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and various phobias, such as social phobia and agoraphobia. People facing these issues often collaborate with a licensed mental health professional to create a personalized treatment plan.
As awareness and understanding of mental health conditions grow, many individuals are turning to alternative therapies, including assistance animals like psychiatric service dogs. According to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a service dog is defined as a dog that is individually trained to perform specific tasks that assist a person with a disability. While most people are familiar with guide dogs for individuals with physical impairments, psychiatric service dogs provide essential support for those with less visible disabilities.
What Conditions Can a Psychiatric Service Dog Assist With?
Psychiatric service dogs can help with various mental health conditions, including but not limited to:
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- Depression
- Anxiety Disorders
- Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
- Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity
- Disorders
- Bipolar Disorders
- Social Phobias
- Schizophrenia
- Agoraphobia
- Claustrophobia
- Panic Disorders
- Autism
What Tasks Can Psychiatric Service Dogs Perform?
Psychiatric service dogs are trained to perform tasks that alleviate the symptoms associated with their handler’s mental health conditions. These tasks cater to the person's specific needs. They often include actions that the person may not do alone.
Some examples of tasks a psychiatric service dog may be trained to perform include:
- Tactile Stimulation and Pressure Therapy: Dogs can be trained to apply pressure on their handler’s lap or chest, helping to ground them and provide a calming effect during anxiety or panic attacks.
- Creating Personal Space: In crowded or claustrophobic environments, a PSD can act as a buffer, providing their handler with necessary physical space.
- Facilitating Outdoor Activities: By encouraging their handler to venture outdoors, PSDs provide essential emotional support and help ease social interactions that may become overwhelming.
- Medication Reminders: A PSD can be trained to alert their handler when it’s time to take medication, and in some cases, can even retrieve the medication.
- Fetching Help: If their handler needs assistance, service dogs can be trained to seek help when signaled.
Service Animal Criteria
They may be any breed or size of dog
Trained to perform a task directly related to a person’s disability
NOT required to be certified or go through professional training program
NOT required to wear a vest or other ID that indicates they’re a service dog
NOT Emotional support or comfort dogs (more about the difference between emotional support animals and service animals below)
State/local governments can require service dogs to be licensed and vaccinated, if all dogs are required to be licensed and vaccinated. They may also offer voluntary service dog registration programs. However, State/local governments cannot require certification or registration of service dogs or ban a service dog based on its breed.
Where Service Animals Are Allowed?
Under the ADA, State and local governments, businesses, and nonprofit organizations that serve the public generally must allow service animals to accompany people with disabilities in all areas of the facility where the public is allowed to go.
Generally, service animals are allowed to be with their person, even in places that don’t allow pets. For example, service dogs can go into:
- Restaurants
- Shops
- Hospitals
- Schools
- Hotels
- Planes (under the Air Carrier Access Act)
A business or state or local government can ask someone to remove their service animal if (1) the dog is not housebroken or (2) the dog is out of control, and the person cannot get the dog under control.
A service dog must be under the control of its handler. Under the ADA, service animals should be harnessed, leashed, or tethered. This is unless the person's disability makes it hard to do so or it disrupts the animal's tasks. In such cases, the handler must maintain control through voice commands or other effective means.
Training Requirements
Service dogs must undergo public access training to ensure they display appropriate behavior in public settings. This training includes:
Asking if a Dog is a Service Animal:
The symptoms of mental health illnesses are not always visible to others. In the United States, under the ADA, the staff of an establishment can legally ask the following questions:
- Is the dog a service animal required because of a disability?
- What work or task has the dog been trained to perform?
The staff of an establishment are not allowed to:
- Request any documentation that the dog is registered, licensed, or certified as a service animal.
- Require that the dog demonstrate its task, or inquire about the nature of the person’s disability
The airlines to have requirements when flying with your service dog and that is outlined in the “Traveling with your Service Dog Section”
