We all know the benefits of animal assisted therapy dogs.
Taken to the next level, psychiatric service dogs are being incorporated into care plans more and more and the benefits of emotional and mental health service dogs are now being recognized.
The Psychiatric Service Dog Society is dedicated to responsible education, research, advocacy and training for such dogs. They provide resources and education for persons with severe mental illness to train a service dog to assist with the daily management of their symptoms.
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It is not fully understood yet how the dog picks up the cues it recognizes in order to alert its person or what exact cues a dog may be picking up on. It is often a silent exchange between animal and person and each partnership is different. It may be a change in breathing patterns, or uncharacteristic sweat gland secretions or something as subtle as in a change in the person’s odor.
What types of illness can a Psychiatric Service Dog help with and what do they actually do? Here is a short list of just some of the ways in which this burgeoning area of animal assisted therapies is changing lives:
Disorder Symptoms and Trainable Tasks
Feelings of isolation - cuddle and kiss; initiate social interaction
Fearfulness, sadness - hug, bring tissues, initiate play
Disorganization - assist with daily routines in the home
Bipolar (manic phase); racing thoughts - tactile stimulation
Insomnia - alert to insomnia
Hyper focus, irritability - alert to incipient manic episode
Panic / Anxiety Fear; fight or flight response - lead handler to a safe place
Pounding heart, trembling, nausea, sweating - staying with and focusing on handler
Dizziness - brace or lean against the handler
Muscle tension - walk on leash
Memory loss - remind to take medication; help to find keys or telephone
Agoraphobia anxiety, fear of what could happen - tactile stimulation
Fear of leaving home - assist handler to leave the house
Social phobia; feeling overwhelmed - staying with and focusing on handler; assist handler in social situation
Nervousness around others - facilitate social interactions
Post Traumatic Stress anxiety, distractibility, flashbacks, disassociation - tactile stimulation
A future column will feature another group assisting with the recovery and management of deep depression with the assistance of canine companions.
Sue Grundfest is a licensed Team Evaluator for Delta Society, the national animal assisted therapy program. If you would like to see if you and your pet are suitable for therapy work, please contact Sue at coco@cocothelovedog.com
If you found this article helpful, please read our other columns
For more information:
Psychiatric Service Dog Society
Comments
One little problem. Several of the "tasks" on the list, actually are not legally considered tasks or are considered "weak". Walking on a leash, facilitating social interaction, hugging, kissing, and cuddling are examples of some of the non/weak tasks that the PSDS has on their list. There seems to be a growing number of people who think that cuddling and medication retrieval make an ESA into a service dog. The former isn't a task and the latter is only one if the person is incapable of doing it themselves.
Most of the "tasks" on that list could be performed by a stuffed Teddy Bear. Most of them are what an ESA does. Neither of which are considered service animals as the law defines a service animal. To be a legitimate service animal, the animal must be able to do something for their disabled handler that the handler cannot do for themselves.
Look, I have no problem with legitimate PSD's. The problem is, some are taking their non service dog animals into public venues thinking that, just because their doctor gave them a "note" or "script" saying that having a dog would be beneficial, they can now declare their pet a "service dog" and run around everywhere with it. My wife has had her Guide dog attacked on two occasions by these fake "service dogs" in public venues. The application of the term "service dog" needs to be better restricted to true and actual animals that meet the legal definition and ability to perform real tasks and work.
While the PSDS is a great community, I have long since thought that their task list was very weak. My PSD alerts to panic attacks and disrupts PTSD dissociations. While I get a lot out of his cuddles and kisses, these are just extra goodies that come with having a loving dog. It has been my long-standing belief that if a business or landlord took someone to court and that person told the judge that their dog is a SD because the dog cuddles with them when they are sad, they would lose the case. Doing this is putting the rest of their sanity at risk.
I am a PSD user. I do agree that most of the tasks listed in this article fall on the weaker side of PSD tasks (aka hugs etc), but there are a lot of things not on this list that PSD's can (and often do) do also. Many of us have good days and bad days. On good days not all of the tasks are needed, other days, I would lose my head if it wasn't attached. Freezing up completely and going into some small corner of your head (like a trance) in public tends to scare people. Having an assistant trained to bring you back to here and now is priceless, especially if you're in the middle of the street.
Smithcat, I'm sorry to hear that your wife's guide has been attacked by fakers, but please understand that there are many very highly trained PSD's out there. The reason you never hear much from them is they aren't getting in trouble. People also fake medical alert dogs to get them in places, yet no one seems to question them. People always remember the negative and not the positive
For a person with disableing mental illness, the tasks on that list can be literally be lifesavers.
My service dog can pick things up for me to assist with dizziness and can hand things to people/take them from people so i don't have to touch anyone- a big fear of mine. She can fetch a phone and dial out in case of a suicide attempt.
As an agoraphobia sufferer, I really do need help to leave the house. I don't often have a person available to take care of me when I go out of the house, but my service dog is always available and does a much better job. She can go with me into restrooms, never leaves my side unless I ask her to, prevents panic attacks by alerting to them in time for me to take preventative meds.
The fact that a service dog forces you to interact with people has been very theraputic. I have learned to talk with others and have gotten more confident because of this.
Having a PSD has enabled me to have a semi normal life that wouldn't have been possible without her.
I am a PSD user. I suffer from PTSD and my PSD alerts me to dissociative episodes and panic attacks. She keeps me, or brings me back very quickly to the here and now. She takes me to a wall or safe place when she alerts me dissociation so that I do not walk into traffic. She also turns the light on at night and walks on me to wake me up from when my flashback nightmares. The list identified in this article needs to be complete, rather than just choosing what they consider the fluff items.
Doesn't The Delta Society affiliates have anything else to do? Why do they continue this charade of writing articles that attack PSDS? Perhaps they should look at the real work that is being done by PSDs, rather dismissing them as ESAs. For those of you who are really interested, go to the PSDS website and read the information for yourself.
The problem lies in the explanation of the tasks. We are not elaborating on HOW these tasks actually assist to mitigate our disabilities.
For example - kissing on command. Yep, worded like that it sounds "weak" to me too. Let me reword for this task as it applies to me:
Kissing on command is a form of tactile stimulation that interrupts the dissasociative state and allows the handler to initiate breathing exercises during a panic attack. Without this tactile stimulation the handler is in such a heightened state of panic that s/he literally forgets to breathe. This results in hyperventilation leading to loss of consciousness. Though the handler has been taught breathing techniques during other courses of treatment s/he is unable to apply them during a panic attack without this prompting from her service dog.
I want to thank everyone for your very thoughtful comments about this subject. Having very little room to explain such an important topic I had hoped readers would go to the link of PSDS and learn more about it, so your comments expanded the ideas and shared with our readers how vital these dogs can be. I agree that the task list in this article was very short and perhaps another piece is warranted to explain more fully the difference between therapy animals and service animals. PSD are service animals to the fullest degree - keep your comments coming as you are giving me more to explore in a positive way.
I agree that the task list needs some elaboration. People who do not know about these disabilities and how they effect us can't understand how something that sounds so fluffy can actually help someone in a legitimate way. There are so many things that a PSD needs to be able to do besides the tasks we ask of them, it is overwhelming. Not many dogs can handle this kind of job really. Just as not many people can handle being married to someone with a mental illness. I am lucky to be married at all really.
I am still searching for the right dog for me. It is a very complex thing to look for a dog with just the right qualities to be able to by pass the fact that the handler will not always do the same things, and will not always be able to take change. I have applied to a few programs in hope of finding the right dog that way. Owner training is very hard when you can't always make every experience positive when you are panicking. I have barely left my home in about 3 years.
While those of you with PSDs say that kissing and cuddling only "sound weak if you don't know the context", the fact is that prior court cases have ruled that unless the dog does it on command and for an extended time (vs what a normal pet would be apt to do) it isn't a task. The PSD movement is wracked with "huggers" and those like the bottom (first) poster mentioned, who are, quite honestly, hurting legitimate PSD users who have task trained dogs.
I'm sorry, but facilitating social interaction is NOT a task. It may be therapeutic, but you could get the same amount of facilitation with (as SmithCat pointed out) "a brightly colored teddy bear". You could also get the same amount of tactile stimulation that some of the "huggers" claim.
As a professional Service Dog trainer I have started a much needed website to help people better understand how to train their dogs and how to navigate the system. It is designed to answer any question you ask. Visit:
www.psychiatricservicedogs.com
to learn more. These dogs save lives.
Task Training is NOT required under the law. Those that claim it is, do not know the law. There is no such thing as a 'weak task'. Either the dog's trained behaviors mitigate the handler's disability, or they do not. Here is what DOJ has to say about 'doing work' or 'performing tasks'. "Many commenters followed the lead of an umbrella service dog organization in suggesting that `performing tasks' should form the basis of the service animal definition, that `do work' should be eliminated from the definition, and that `physical' should be added to describe tasks. Tasks by their nature are physical, so the Department does not believe that such a change is warranted. In contrast, the phrase `do work' is slightly broader than `perform tasks,' and adds meaning to the definition. For example, a psychiatric service dog can help some individuals with dissociative identity disorder to remain grounded in time or place." Reference: DOJ June 2008 NPRM (Google it).
Psychiatric disorders (and other weird chemical-based syndromes) may be invisible, but they are no less real or debilitating than those that are clearly visible to the layperson. Some of my conditions are inherited, which by definition, makes them "physical." I am currently training a service dog who may fall into the category of PSD, although splitting PSDs from SDs seems to be an artificial construct. Although not completely trained, my dog already has an affect on my ability to get through a day without severe pain or other symptoms. He helps me regulate chemical levels that control symptoms. Who are any of you to say that the functions ("work") he performs are less important than what your dog does?
For that matter, why would one disabled person want to deny another the benefit of a therapeutic tool of whatever form? Don't we all suffer enough discrimination without splitting ourselves into smaller units?
I have to agree on the weak part. Alert to insomnia???? If a person doesn't know they are awake and can't sleep they have deeper issues. That is NOT a task. Walking on a leash? That too is not a task and is part of being a dog in the US.
I am a service dog user and trainer. I believe firmly in tasks though the tasks can be alot of things. I believe also the intent of the law was that service animals be trained to do work or perform tasks. Doing what dogs normally do is neither doing work or performing tasks. I do believe that medication retrieval can qualify if the person has memory issues as I do and actually FORGETS to take meds. As in a heres your meds now TAKE them situation. But then I believe that is only for that brief hour of time the dr prescribed them to be taken, a dog is not usually required all day long out in public to remind you to take meds when you wake up. Kissing/cuddling/hugging is not work nor a task. That's just a dog.
There are days when I don't speak to another person all day long, because of my anxiety or depression. When I see my Duchess, it's like there is no one else in the world. She has not been trained as a PSD and I do agree that some of the tasks listed above are dogs just being dogs, but if they are the only things in the world that make you feel better, so what. I force myself to go to work everyday, b/c my family wouldn't eat otherwise. There are days that I function ok, but others are terrible. Duchess is the only one that can bring me out of feeling blue or not being able to breath.
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