Service Dogs for Depression

Significance

• People suffering from major depression often rely on companion animals to distract them from the emotional and psychological pain of the disease. Caring for an animal also helps lift the mood of a depressed person. But psychiatric service dogs do much more than offer passive support. Their training helps them identify mood changes associated with depression, and they respond with physical support to a variety of situations a depressed person might encounter.

Emotional Response

• Psych dogs, as they are sometimes called, are trained to respond to specific behaviors displayed by people suffering from serious depression, according to the Psychiatric Service Dog Society. When a depressed owner cries or expresses sadness, for example, a psych dog responds by licking tears and the face, bringing tissues and initiating playful activities to draw the person’s attention away from the sad thoughts. Psych dogs also offer cuddling and kisses to help an owner feel less isolated and apathetic.

Physical Support

• Psych dogs are trained to perform specific physical support tasks, including dialing 911 on special phones, retrieving medications and objects that have been dropped, and alerting other household members in a crisis, according to the International Association of Assistance Dog Partners. Some depressed patients sleep too much, and psych dogs are trained to wake them when they do not respond to alarms, according to Neuro Talk. For patients whose medication causes dizziness, psych dogs provide support for standing and walking.

Training

• Psych service dogs must master obedience and public-access training before moving on to disability-specific training, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. While professional training is not required to prepare a psych dog to work with a depressed patient, SAMHSA encourages owners to seek expert help. Training typically takes a year before a psych dog is prepared for service.

ADA Access

• As task-trained animals, psychiatric service dogs are covered under the Americans With Disabilities Act. This means that retail businesses, including restaurants, hotels, theaters, medical office and shops, must allow access to the service animal entering with its owner. Retailers are not allowed to segregate a person and his service dog from other areas where customers are allowed. Animals called emotional support dogs are not covered by the ADA, according to Service Dog Central, as these dogs typically are not trained to perform specific physical tasks in service to their depressed owners.

Other Disorders

• Psychiatric service dogs also are used to support patients with other types of disabling mental illnesses, including post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia and panic and anxiety disorders. When trained for PTSD, for example, psych dogs learn to respond to nightmares by waking up owners, turning on lights and then turning them off when the calmed person tries to go back to sleep, according to the Psychiatric Service Dog Society. For anxiety and other disorders that trigger memory loss, psych dogs help owners remember to take medications, and they retrieve misplaced phones.