Psychiatric service dogs

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

Nike Girl

New Member
10+ Year Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Hello,

I have a question. I am in a clinical psychology doctoral program, and I am considering getting a psychiatric service dog for a mental disorder that I have. This mental disorder does not interfere with my ability to treat clients. However, since licensure boards ask about relevant psychiatric history, if I got a psychiatric service dog (indicating a present mental illness/disability), could I still get licensed?

Any feedback you have would be great. Thank you.

Members don't see this ad.
 
I can't speak to licensure, and I don't know how this would go over in your grad program, so I'll let someone else weigh in there.

I do think you'll need to consider the type of setting that you'll be practicing in for practica/internship/postdoc. Some places may be open to a dog, while others may not, even if it's a service dog. For example, working on a medical floor in a hospital will probably be incompatible with bringing a dog, as will working with patients who have specific types of medical disorders. I would assume that in those situations, they are not required to make accommodations for someone with a psychiatric service dog because the patients' physical health takes priority. An anxiety clinic that treats phobias may be legally required to allow you to bring your doc, but may not be happy about it.

Above all else, if you do have a service dog, be prepared for the fact that people will ask you questions about it, whether or not they're "allowed" to do so by law. I did have a colleague who got her own dog trained as a service dog specifically so that she'd be able to bring it to work with her, and our clinic was okay with that because it was theoretically helpful to patients, but she didn't have any rights or protections around it because it wasn't in her service - if the clinic policy changed, the dog would have had to stay home.
 
Top