[MellowYellow]

Your Rights

Service Animals in Housing
http://www.deltasociety.org/dsz102.htm

Federal legal resources
http://www.iaadp.org/doglaws.html

Tasks
Service Dog Tasks for Psychiatric Disabilities
http://www.iaadp.org/psd_tasks.html

Education
Assistance Dog Institute
Get your degree and a career in Assistance Dog education
http://www.assistancedog.org/

Forums

Psychiatric Service Animals
http://groups.yahoo....c_Service_Dogs/

Brain Disorder Service Animals
http://groups.yahoo....r_Service_Dogs/

Invisible Disabilities
http://groups.yahoo....e_Disabilities/

Emotional Support Animals
http://health.groups...upport_Animals/

Service Animal Organizations

Diabetes and Seizure Alert Service Dogs
All Purpose Canines - training and placement, includes Autism
http://www.allpurposecanines.com/

Access Now, Inc.
A 501©3 not-for-profit organization in Florida which offers legal assistance to PWDs being discriminated against (even if you don't live in Florida).
http://www.adaaccessnow.org/ 
 
Assistance Dogs International (ADI)
The leadership of this organization is anti-PSD. However, this site contains a sample public access test which may be of interest, and lots of links.
http://www.adionline.org/
 
Delta Society
This site contains good, plain-english articles on SA laws, a handy law card, and *lots* of good links.
http://www.deltasociety.org/dsb000.htm 
 
International Association of Assistance Dog Partners
Site contains a list of PSD tasks, good legal articles, and *lots* of useful links.
http://www.iaadp.org 
 
Marilyn Pona
Very active trainer and advocate. She got the service animal stickers put on the doors to the St. Louis airport. She trains PSD teams and for other brain disorders.
http://www.marilynpona.com 
 
National Service Dog Center
A project of the Delta Society.
http://www.deltasociety.org/dsb000.htm 
 
Service Dogs Today
Education and advocacy organisation in Missouri
http://www.servicedogstoday.org
 
The Assistance Dog Institute (TADI)
This organization refuses access by SD teams to their courses, but they have several good legal references which are difficult to find elsewhere.
http://www.assistancedog.org
 
Top Dog
This organization is a training program. They authored two books on training service dogs by disabled handlers, called 'Teamwork I' and 'Teamwork II'.
http://www.topdogusa.org/ 

Diabetes and Seizure Alert Service Dogs
http://www.heavenscentpaws.com/

Other

How to Lobby and get a bill passed for service animals (written for Montana but good anywhere)

http://www.badbills....obbying_101.htm

Advanced Lobbying
http://www.badbills....obbying_201.htm

Lobbying for Canadians
http://www.urbancent.../strategic.html

Equipment

Hug a Dog Harness and mess capes for warm weather
http://www.hug-a-dog.com/hugadog.htm

Capes
http://www.raspberryfield.com


Please add to these as you find more. I need some for cats, etc!

[febrezeaddict]

I was unaware that they had dogs for psychiatric dissabilities.. thanks for all of the links, though.  They shall be fun searching...

[Batou]

For cat owners and others who wish to discuss the use of cats as service animals, therapy animals, etc.

A yahoo group that may be of interest

This post has been edited by Erika: 24 July 2005 - 01:49 PM

[Supergwen]

I WANT A MONKEY!  SOMEONE JUSTIFY A BP AND DEPRESSED GIRL GETTING A MONKEY!!!

[CrazySoprano]

It doesn't necessarily have to be a trained service animal to be beneficial, though.  My extraordinarily cute toy poodle always makes me feel better when I'm depressed, and she can't do anything more complicated than "sit" and "stay".  Nothing boosts your self-esteem like a little ball of fur who jumps all over you and kisses you just because you came back from the grocery store.

[attachment=199:attachment]

Isn't she the cutest puppy you ever saw?

This post has been edited by CrazySoprano: 17 August 2005 - 02:15 PM

[Panz]

I have real problems with being alone, and my depression is getting worse. I'm considering getting a tiny dog to take with me when I have to go places, so I will have some kind of comfort with me.  I just looked at some peke-poms that were like total little fuzz balls and tomorrow i'm going to see some pom-chihuahas...I hope it helps

[screamingflea]

Thanks for posting all those links!  I felt really smart, coming to this forum to offer a link to the Psychiatric Service Dog Society, but you stole my thunder.

Here it is, anyway ... http://www.psychdog.org/index.html

I have a dog I've been training for about a year, and I've been taking him out 'in public' for about 7 months now.  He still has a way to go in his training, but he's totally revolutionized my life.  I was pretty well housebound with agoraphobia and panic; now the simple fact of having him at my side enables me to go to restaurants, to church, ride the bus, etc.

Getting a service dog is definitely a major commitment, with all kinds of social and legalistic implications I hadn't thought about till I was already there.  It's a lifestyle.  But if you're willing to jump through some hoops, and answer a lot of dumb questions from curious onlookers (so, duh, are you like blind?) it can be a true lifesaver.

PS - Another thing to consider with psych service dogs is that because it's such a new field, a lot of community discussions about defining it are still going on.  Not all of them are pretty.  I'd especially caution anyone approaching Assistance Dogs Int'l for info; they're so anti-psych that all their published materials attempt to rewrite ADA and state laws to specify 'physical disability' in all their published materials.  Even though very few of those laws exclude psych disabilities in reality.  It's a shame that the MI stigma pervades the disability community, but there you have it.  Don't let it scare you off; just take any exclusionary messages you get with a grain of salt.

Good luck.

This post has been edited by screamingflea: 19 September 2005 - 05:59 PM

[Insanity]

I will jump in on this thread as I have a Psychiatric Service Animal. I am on disability because of my back and BP. I can not carry over 5 pounds so I asked for a small dog.

Precious is a 3½ pound Yorkie that is 6 years old. She is my little companion, she goes everywhere with me. Ryan's even has her own little booster seat for when we go there to eat.

As you can see from the photo of her in Santa's hand, she is a tiny little thing.


She wears dresses, coats, sweaters, a rain coat and one of my friend's wife cut up an old mink coat and Precious even has her own little mink coat.

Precious lets me know if I am about to have an anxiety or panic attack by demanding attention. When she starts demanding attention, I know it is time to get out of the situation and back to the truck before my mental health is affected drastically. As someone mentioned, just having her there to pet is reassurance and a big help.

The link to psychdog.org is a great link. Joan and the participants help in you training your own psychiatric service animal. You just post your problems on the listserv and they will try their best to help you.

Service Dog Tasks for Psychiatric Disabilities at http://www.iaadp.org/psd_tasks.html is the best source I have found on the net about psychiatric service animals and what they can do for us.

Insanity

[Hibachi Ho]

This whole thread made me cry my eyes out. In the past year and a half three of my pets have died, one of them died two weeks ago today. I have a cute little dog with congestive heart failure so I'm dreading what is to come, but thankfully after death #2 last year *your preferred deity* sent a little starving kitten my way who now is more important to me than almost anything else in life... But I've been depressed this whole time (a family friend died of cancer in December, 10 days before his 17th birthday and that fucked me up too) and my pdoc says I am "BPD squared" so I've got bipolar and borderline but lithium isn't doing shit anymore, my liver enzymes are elevated, I'm abusing adderall so I can have some confidence in public (but it doesn't work because I seem manic and I know I'm being annoying when I can't stop talking, also the now ex took it away because I was being such a psycho about it) and I'm quitting my job today and I got dumped last night and pdoc is in Canada until the 28th and this is the first time I've understood why suicide happens. I won't do it, it used to be because of my younger siblings but now it's mostly because of my cat

The point is, animals are a double-edged sword for some of us (or just me). I wouldn't even want to exist without them, but losing them is devastating. I would have more if I could afford them. I hope to start an animal rescue post-college (and post-grad school for non-profit management), and wouldn't it be nice to be able to provide crazy people like myself with a fuzzy little companion to help them through the dark times...