Dog helping with PTSD, Anxiety & Depression
Let’s first clarify the difference between a therapy dog, an emotional support dog and a psychiatric service dog (PSD).
According to ADA, to qualify as a Service Dog, the dog 1) must be specifically trained to perform certain tasks; natural dog behaviors do not qualify; 2) must mitigate the person’s disability; 3) must be needed by that specific handler.
What conditions could be helped by a Psychiatric Service Dog?
“The ADA defines a person with a disability as a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activity.” To qualify for a service dog, you must be diagnosed with a disability. Depression, stress, or anxiety are only considered a disability if they limit what you can do. For instance, some people cannot go to the store on their own. Others can’t leave their homes, can’t work, or go to public places when it’s crowded. If you have depression or anxiety but are still able to go through your day without limitations, you do not qualify for a service dog under the ADA.
The dog must allow you to go places and face situations that you would not be able to without a service dog.
Psychiatric Service Dogs for Those with Dissociative Identity Disorder
Many of you share my intense appreciation for dogs. My Facebook posts with pictures of our dogs see more action than all of my other serious posts combined.
I’ve read that the endorphin levels in our brains go up when we interact with a pet. But I was surprised to find how much safer and more relaxed I felt when I got reintroduced to dogs as an adult six years ago. Since then I’ve often thought how great it would be if I could just take Griffin with me everywhere. Plane rides with turbulence. The crowded state fair. The dentist.
You can imagine my excitement when I found out about psychiatric service dogs. We’re all familiar with working dogs that help people with mobility disabilities in countless ways, from keeping them safe to helping them find their keys and millions of tasks in-between. I hadn’t given any thought to the intuitive benefits of a dog in the life of those with psychiatric disabilities, such as post-traumatic stress disorder or dissociative identity disorder. And here I thought I knew a fair amount about trauma.
So my interest piqued in a serious way when my Facebook friend Lee announced the arrival of her new service-dog-in-training, Thomas. For one, Thomas is painfully cute. For another, I’ve known that Lee struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder and dissociative identity disorder. Flashbacks, panic attacks and anxiety in crowds and unknown surroundings have often kept Lee from going to school, youth group, shopping and many everyday activities enjoyed by most other 20-year-olds.
Lee and her mom stumbled across the notion of a psychiatric service dog when looking for an online support group. They read that a service dog can help reduce a person’s need for hyper-vigilance, increase feelings of safety, and reduce overall levels of anxiety.
Specific to DID, a psychiatric service dog can help interrupt dissociation, help a person remember to take medication, retrieve objects, guide her from stressful situations such as crowded areas, even physically brace her if she becomes dizzy, lightheaded or dissociative.
Psychiatric service dogs, like other formally trained service animals, can accompany their handlers in any place normally accessible to the public—whether or not health codes or business policy normally would allow a dog to enter. In this way they are different than emotional support dogs that are also invaluable to their owners, but not afforded the same protections and access by the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Lee started thinking that a service dog might just be the kind of help she needs to become more independent.
She wrote to 6 different organizations requesting a service dog. Since she lives in a rural part of Nova Scotia, most of them couldn’t help her because of the geographic distance. Dogs in training go back and forth between their new owners and their trainers. But Therapeutic Medical Alert Service Dogs in Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia, Canada said they could help her get one.
About a month ago, Thomas the Labradoodle service-puppy-in-training entered Lee’s life. Although she only has him part-time while he finishes his formal training, he has already helped her in many ways. “Right now when I have a flashback I go and hug him, but when he is trained he will know before I have one and come to me. He has helped me be able to go into a few stores and he has helped me get back to youth group, which is something that means a lot to me.”
Thomas will learn as many helpful tasks as Lee needs him to. “He will be able to help me find the exit to a store if I panic and can’t find it myself. He will be able to help me be in a large group of people and go to University. I know Thomas and I have a lot of work ahead of us, but with time everything will be in its place and I will be able to do all the things I dream of doing.” Lee hopes to study psychology with the larger goal of someday being able to help other young people who have been abused.
To learn more about psychiatric service dogs in the US check out Heeling Animals To learn more about service dogs in Nova Scotia, Canada visit Therapeutic Medical Alert Service Dogs.
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