Service Dogs For Bipolar Disorder
You no doubt have heard about seeing-eye dogs for the visually impaired. There are service dogs for those with various physical disabilities as well. Have you ever heard of a service dog for an individual with a mental illness such as bipolar disorder?
Increasingly there are more canines being trained to help people with a range of disabilities both physical and mental. Individuals with bipolar disorder are eligible to benefit of a service dog under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Among the tasks with which a service dog can help an individual with bipolar disorder include retrieving medications, beverages and telephones. A service dog is trained to not only bark to get help, but answer a door bell and even dial 911 should the individual with bipolar disorder need it. This last task is down through a special K9 speaker telephone.
Other ways in which a service dog can assist an individual with bipolar disorder is actually reminding the person when to take his or her medications, alerting a sedated individual of the ringing of a doorbell, the telephone or the alarm of a smoke detector.
That's not the only jobs service dogs perform for those with bipolar disorder though. These dogs are trained to prevent others from crowding their owner during a panic attack for instance. They can also learn to recognize the signs of a panic attack in their owner and nuzzle him to help calm him down.
While the individual with bipolar disorder is at home, a service dog can help with turning on and off lights and open doors. These specially trained animals can also check for possible intruders in the home.
Beyond these physical aids, a service dog can provide unconditional love and the emotional benefits that the medical community have said for so long have been associated with pet ownership. This alone may provide an individual with bipolar disorder tremendous benefits.
In order to qualify for a service dog under the Americans with Disability Act, the individual with bipolar disorder must be recognized as having a disability and the service dog must be trained to meet the needs associated with bipolar disorder.
The specific definition for disabled in this sense means that the person with bipolar disorder that substantially limits at least one of his or her major activities in life, who has a history of such impairment or is perceived by others as having this impairment.
The act, additionally, defines a service animal as any guide or signal dog specially trained to provide assistance to the individual with bipolar disorder or other disability. As long as the animal meets this definition, the animal does not need to be either licensed or certified as a service dog through a state or local government.
