Can a Psychiatric Service Dog Help With Bipolar Disorder?

A properly trained Psychiatric Service Dog (PSD) can provide much-needed companionship and perform essential tasks to assist people with psychiatric disabilities, including bipolar disorder. Not only do these lovable creatures enrich lives, but they also receive important protections under federal and state law.

In this post, we provide background information on bipolar disorder and explain how a fully-trained service animal can help mitigate the condition. Next, we cover the relevant legal protections and obligations to ensure you understand your rights. And finally, we’ll explain how to certify and train a PSD. That way, you can bring an adorable four-legged helper into your life.

What Is Bipolar and Does It Classify as a Psychiatric Disability?

Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depression, is a well-documented mental health condition where the afflicted exhibits intense mood fluctuations.

The patient switches between dark depressive episodes and ecstatic moods known as mania, each typically lasting several days or weeks. These intense moods can have a significant impact on a person’s overall quality of life.

The American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) recognizes bipolar as a psychiatric disability in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5).

However, to qualify as a disability under the ADA, a person with bipolar must meet one of three criteria:

• The disorder significantly limits one or more major life activities
• The person has a history or record of bipolar
• The person is perceived by others as having a disability

Although there’s no known cure for bipolar, some medication has been shown to mitigate the effects.

Furthermore, PSDs can provide emotional support and perform vital tasks to assist a person with bipolar in their everyday lives.

What Is a Psychiatric Service Dog?

A PSD is a service dog that’s been specially trained to assist its handler with specific tasks.

The ADA defines a PSD as follows:

• “Dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities…”
• “The task(s) performed by the dog must be directly related to the person’s disability…”

PSDs receive the same legal protections as any other service dogs, including Seeing Eye Dogs or animals trained to assist people with hearing loss. In the eyes of the ADA, there’s no legal distinction between a PSD and any other service dog.

However, dogs that provide emotional support through their very presence are treated differently. As these animals aren’t trained to perform disability-related tasks, they are regarded as Emotional Support Animals (ESAs) rather than PSDs.

ESAs receive some legal protections, although they aren’t covered to the same extent as PSDs.

How Can a Service Dog Help With Bipolar?

PSDs can and do provide emotional support, which dramatically improves the overall mood of their handlers, especially during depressive episodes.

However, to qualify as a PSD under the ADA, the animal must also perform one or more disability-related tasks. There’s a wide range of ways you can train a PSD to assist with bipolar disorder, some of which we cover below:

• Waking the handler up to avoid oversleeping
• Nudging or distracting the handler to interrupt self-harm
• Fetching medication at prescribed times throughout the day
• Alerting a sleeping or sedated handler to a telephone call or doorbell
• Fetching a telephone or calling emergency services during a dangerous episode
• Enacting tactile intervention to calm manic behavior
• Guiding the handler to safety during a manic episode

The above list is only a sample of some of the tasks a PSD can perform to aid a person with bipolar.

A dog only needs to perform one disability-related task to qualify as a PSD under the ADA.

What Legalities Protections Does a Psychiatric Service Dog Receive?

Aside from the essential everyday tasks these life-affirming animals can perform, the ADA and other federal and state laws grant service dogs various protections

• Public Access: Public accommodations (restaurants, hotels, museums, etc.) cannot refuse entry, charge extra fees, or treat a person with a disability differently when accompanied by a service dog, even if animals aren’t normally allowed.
• Transport: Transportation providers, including airlines, must accommodate service dogs accompanying a person with a disability at no extra fee.
• The Workplace: Employers must make reasonable accommodations to allow a service dog that accompanies a person with a disability into the workplace.
• Housing: Landlords cannot refuse to rent a property or charge extra fees to a person with a disability accompanied by a service dog, even if pets aren’t normally allowed.

Conditions apply, which vary from situation to situation. Most notably, a service dog cannot behave disruptively (bark, bite, attempt to bite, lung, or growl) and must be housebroken. Otherwise, the establishment can ask the handler to remove the animal from the premises.

Bipolar Service Dog Training and Registration

There’s no formal certification or registration requirement under the ADA. If a dog has been individually trained to perform specific tasks to assist a person with a life-limiting disability, the Act automatically considers it a service dog.

To train a service dog, you have three main options to consider.

Professional Training

Reputable professional trainers provide in-depth training to achieve outstanding results. The downside is these services don’t come cheap, with total fees ranging from $5,000 to $25,000.

Some trainers include a more cost-effective at-home training component, where the would-be dog owner does most of the work in their own time.

Non-Profits

Charitable organizations throughout America prepare and place fully-trained service dogs in the homes of people with disabilities, including bipolar disorder. Through corporate sponsorships and community donations, non-profits can offer the service free of charge or at a heavily discounted rate.

The major drawback is you’ll need to go through a complex application process and then join a long waiting list (2-5 years).

Self-Training

Self-training is a fast and cost-effective way of preparing a service dog to assist with numerous disability-related tasks. Several companies offer online self-training programs, which give the handler everything they need to get the job done.

However, self-training does require a considerable amount of effort. Therefore, it could prove challenging for someone with bipolar disorder.

A Better Outlook With a Bipolar Service Dog

Upon bringing a fully-trained PSD into your home, the animal can enhance your overall quality of life in numerous ways. From everyday emotional support to performing those crucial disability-related tasks, these endearing canine companions can transform the lives of people with bipolar.