How does an dog/animal qualify to become a psychiatric service animal?
The Americans with Disabilities Act, 1990, (ADA), defines service animal as: “any animal individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability.” The ADA defines a disability as: “a mental or physical condition which substantially limits a major life activity such as caring for one’s self, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning and working.” To be considered a service animal, the animalsmust be trained to perform tasks directly related to the person’s disability. “Comforting” or “giving love”, although clinically proven to be beneficial for people, would not be acknowledged as a trained “task” by the Department of Justice, which enforces the ADA. Examples of trained tasks performed by psychiatric service dogs can be found at www.iaadp.org/psd_tasks.html.