animals in service to us
Most of us are familiar with seeing-eye dogs for the blind, and in recent years there are dogs trained to respond to phones and door bells, to recognize seizures for children and adults, and to do much more, but not many of us are familiar with psychiatric service dogs or emotional support animals.
If you or someone you love are disabled by mental illness, physical disabilities, or age-related disabilities, you will want to know about these new classifications given to pets, dogs, cats, birds, or any pet that bring comfort, and that would allow you to keep your pet in a pet restricted places, such as apartments, restaurants, planes or anywhere ordinary pets aren't allowed. Dogs can be trained to be psychiatric service dogs, and enjoy the same freedoms that guide dogs have, or your pet, cat, dog, bird, can be classified as an emotional support animal.
Psychiatric Service Dog Society The Psychiatric Service Dog Society (PSDS) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to responsible Psychiatric Service Dog (PSD) education, advocacy, research and training facilitation. They provide essential information for persons disabled by severe mental illness, who wish to train a service dog to assist with the management of symptoms. They consult regularly with mental healthcare providers in their efforts to learn more about PSD. They also host an online community of service dog handlers veteran and new. Please note: they do not provide or train dogs for individuals. They are an educational and capacity-building organization dedicated to responsible Psychiatric Service Dog community stewardship.
You can print brochlures from their website to hand out to your physicians, landlords, restaurants, or any individuals that you want to educate about psychiatric service dogs.
Emotional Support Animal (ESA) is the name given to a pet owned by a disabled person. Emotional Support Animals are not "individually trained to do work or perform tasks" that assist you with your disability. They are pets, not Service Animals. This is addressed in the article "Right to Emotional Support Animals in 'No Pets' Housing" on the web site for the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. CLICK HERE to read it.
"Advocates and professionals have long recognized the benefits of assistive animals for people with physical disabilities, including seeing eye dogs or hearing dogs who are trained to perform simple tasks such as carrying notes and alerting their owners to oncoming traffic or other environmental hazards. Recent research suggests that people with psychiatric disabilities can benefit significantly from assistive animals, too. Emotional support animals have been proven extremely effective at ameliorating the symptoms of these disabilities, such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, by providing therapeutic nurture and support."
You will also find instructions for how to keep a pet in a 'no pets' or 'restricted pets' housing in a publication created by the Doris Day Animal League called, "Friends for Life". You can download a free copy in .pdf format by CLICKING HERE.