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Psychiatric service dogs are able to perform a variety of tasks for their owners that enable the individual to move about their day with more comfort and safety. If you are considering adopting a psychiatric service dog, you may be wondering which tasks exactly a dog can help you with.
Fortunately, we’ve compiled a list of the most common tasks that a psychiatric service dog can be trained to perform so you can evaluate whether or not adopting one is right for you and your situation.
Psychiatric Service Dogs vs Traditional Service Dogs
Though many people often think of psychiatric service dogs (PSD) and traditional service dogs as the same thing, there are some important differences between these animals. Psychiatric service dogs are trained to help their owners with specific mental health or psychiatric conditions, such as anxiety, depression, OCD, PTSD, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.
They provide comfort, support, and assistance to their owners that helps to relieve major symptoms of these disabilities.
On the other hand, traditional service dogs fall into the categories of either “medical assistance dogs” or “guide dogs.” Medical assistance dogs assist their owners with medical conditions such as seizures, low blood pressure, or low blood sugar by alerting the individual to changes in condition and bringing medication, among other tasks. Guide dogs provide mobility assistance to the hearing and vision impaired, ensuring that these individuals can move about their lives safely.
All classes of service dogs are protected under the ADA and given legal protection when it comes to public access areas. This is something we will talk about in more detail later.
Understanding Emotional Support Animals
Often confused with service dogs, emotional support animals (ESA) are actually not the same thing. ESAs help their owners by providing a source of comfort and reassurance. Their presence can help alleviate negative feelings and reduce stress, and the act of caring for the animal day after day can help the owner maintain a sense of daily routine.
Because the role of an emotional support animal is more therapeutic and they are not trained to perform specific tasks like a service dog would be, they have different legal protections and public access rights. You can read more about the legal rights of an ESA here.
Psychiatric Service Dog Tasks
While a psychiatric service dog can perform a range of specialized tasks for an individual, our list below provides a comprehensive overview of the main, most important tasks that you might need a PSD to help you with.
Provide Companionship
Oftentimes, living with a psychiatric condition can be lonely, and an individual may have frequent negative thoughts. The presence of a PSD by their side can help the owner by giving them a companion. This, in turn, lightens certain negative emotions and can give the owner a sense of normalcy and routine as they care for their dog.
Basic Service Dog Tasks
In addition to these specialized psychiatric service dog tasks, a PSD can provide their owner help by opening and closing doors, fetching items off the ground, bringing out of reach items to their owner, pressing buttons, and putting items back on shelves.
All of these tasks are fairly basic for a service dog, but they can be incredibly helpful for someone who is suffering from a psychiatric condition and needs extra assistance in their daily life.
Guide Their Owner
When an owner enters a dissociative state, it is easy for them to get lost, confused, or otherwise turned around. A psychiatric service dog can guide their owner back home using scent to lead the way or by following commands to specific locations.
They can also prevent the owner from walking into danger around their home or in public during a disoriented state.
Retrieve Medication
If an owner is unable to retrieve their own medication during an event such as a panic attack, a psychiatric service dog will bring it to them. They can also retrieve water and be trained to bring medication at certain times with specific commands.
Retrieve Phones
Similar to retrieving medication, a psychiatric service dog can bring a phone to someone who is having a medical emergency, panic attack, or other emergency mental health symptoms. They can be taught to retrieve a phone or other communication device through both spoken commands and gestures.
Find Help
In the event of an emergency when the owner is unable to call for help or has passed out, a PSD can be taught to call 911 for help and can lead first responders to the owner in the event that they are hidden from view or unable to communicate their exact location.
Provide Deep Pressure Therapy
Psychiatric service dogs can be trained to recognize the onset of disability symptoms such as dissociative states or anxiety episodes as they being to appear. They can alert their owner as a warning for these behaviors and will often start putting their paw or head on their owner in an effort to distract them.
PSDs will also provide deep pressure therapy to stop these symptoms by laying their entire body onto their owner, offering warmth and comfort. Deep pressure therapy has been shown to be highly effective in reducing levels of stress and anxiety, which works to calm the owner down and make them more grounded.
Alert Their Owner
Some individuals may take medications to help treat their disabilities that are sedating; this can cause slow reaction times and deep sleeping. In the event of an emergency, such as a fire, a psychiatric service dog will alert their owner until they respond using licking, barking, and nudging the individual.
Redirect Attention
With some psychiatric issues such as OCD, repetitive behaviors can be an issue. A psychiatric service dog can be trained to recognize repetitive behaviors and will bring an item to the owner in order to redirect any nervous or anxious energy to a different, healthier behavior, effectively stopping the negative actions.
Psychiatric service dogs can also interrupt post-traumatic flashbacks and dissociative states by pawing at the individual, grounding them and redirecting the individual’s focus.
Interrupt Self-Harming Behaviors
Certain psychiatric issues can cause individuals to engage in self-harming behaviors such as hitting, scratching, and biting at themselves. A PSD can interrupt these behaviors by placing themselves in the way of their owner’s movements or nudging at their owner until the negative behaviors are stopped.
They may also redirect the individual’s attention away from the behaviors by asking to be pet, brushed, or walked.
Identify Hallucinations
Some psychiatric conditions may cause an individual to experience hallucinations. A psychiatric service dog can help identify whether or not a hallucination is real or not; PSDs are often taught to greet anyone that enters a room or approaches the owner. If the dog does not greet or approach what they are seeing, this verifies that the individual is experiencing a hallucination.
Search Their Owner’s Rooms
When it comes to certain anxiety disorders or PTSD, an individual may have trouble entering rooms because of an overwhelming sense of fear and anxiety. Psychiatric service dogs can be taught to search a room before their owner enters and bark when they find someone.
They can also check around corners and scout out areas before the owner walks into them, relieving some of the individual’s fears.
Act as a Buffer
With anxiety disorders, PTSD, or autism, individuals may find it hard to be out and about in public, especially when there is a chance of a place being crowded. A psychiatric service dog can help comfort their owner by placing their body between the owner and others in public, acting as a buffer.
They can also guard their owner’s back or side in public, giving the individual an elevated level of comfort and safety.
Prevent Choking
In emergency situations where their owner is vomiting or otherwise has their airways blocked, a psychiatric service dog can be taught to clear the owner’s airway and bring them water. They can also fetch help in the case of a serious medical emergency.
Calm Meltdowns
In those with autism, sensory overload or other triggers can cause meltdowns. Psychiatric service dogs can stop this by diverting the owner’s attention or by laying a part of their body on the individual, districting and calming them down, effectively preventing the meltdown.
Provide Balance Support
Sometimes medication for a psychiatric condition or a heightened emotional state can make an individual feel dizzy or unsteady on their feet. A psychiatric service dog can help by supporting their owner and guiding them back to a safe place where the owner can sit and regain their sense of balance.
Wake Their Owner Up
If an individual passes out as the result of their psychiatric condition or medication, a psychiatric service dog is trained to revive them by barking, pawing, and licking at their face. If these actions are not successful, the PSD can be trained to find help.
Psychiatric Service Dog Legal Rights
Under the ADA, psychiatric service dogs are granted certain legal rights that give them access to public areas that dogs would not usually be allowed in. This is to ensure that the individual needing the dog is able to take advantage of the same things that those without service dogs can easily access.
It is important to note that the ADA does not require you to identify your service dog in public, though many owners do choose to use a vest on their dog to identify their use as a working animal and to discourage negative interactions with others out in public.
Your PSD will be permitted to any public area, including grocery stores, restaurants, airplanes, offices, medical offices, and government buildings. In addition, they are allowed in public areas without incurring any type of pet fee (this means that you will not have to pay airline or hotel pet fees when traveling with your service dog).
Any apartment, dorm, or home that you reside in must allow your psychiatric service dog to stay with you, even if pets are not usually allowed. You will also not be required to pay pet fees for living with your dog.
You are also not allowed to be separated from your psychiatric service dog in any way in public, nor is it legal for you to be seated away from other patrons because your service dog is with you. These protections are to ensure that you can access the same services as others, all while having the comfort and safety that your PSD brings.
How to Obtain a Psychiatric Service Dog
If you are interested in obtaining a psychiatric service dog, your first step should be to consult your doctor or mental health professional and seek their advice on whether this is right for you. Additionally, you may need to meet certain qualifications that ensure you can adequately care for a service dog and have proof of a psychiatric condition that affects the quality of your day-to-day life.
You must be able to participate in a portion of your service dog’s training, as this is what helps build the bond between you and your animal. You must also be able to independently care for and give commands to the dog, and you should be able to provide it with a stable home environment and the care it needs (this often involves having the finances available for health care, food, and continued training).
Oftentimes, a doctor or mental health provider will also need to provide you with a recommendation letter that assets to your need for a psychiatric service dog and states how it would improve your life.
Depending on where you receive your service dog from, you may need to meet other qualifications, but the above list is generally required by most organizations that adopt out and place service dogs.
How Much Does a Psychiatric Service Dog Cost?
Obtaining a psychiatric service dog can be quite a large financial commitment; service dogs can cost anywhere between $15,000 and $30,000, depending on how much specialized training that needs to be done. You will also need to have the financial ability to pay for ongoing care, veterinary visits, and additional training, which can greatly add to the lifetime cost of a service dog.
It is possible to train a service dog yourself, but if you need to teach more complex or specialized skills, this can cost you between $150 and $250 per hour for a professional trainer; the total cost depends on how much professional training your dog will require.
For those who need a service dog but are not able to afford one, there are several national and local organizations out there that place service dogs with individuals in need. You can run an internet search to start looking for these organizations or speak to a mental health professional, as they may be able to point you in the right direction of a local organization.
Acquiring the Assistance You Need
For individuals living with a psychiatric condition, it can be hard to maintain a daily routine or proceed about their lives without symptoms of their disability making themselves known.
A psychiatric service dog, when combined with medication and a treatment plan, can help relieve some of the more serious symptoms of a psychiatric disability and can give an individual a sense of comfort and safety as they proceed about their day.
If you feel like you would benefit from owning a service dog, speak with your doctor or mental health professional to evaluate your need for one and get started on the process of acquiring the assistance you need.