Emotional Support Animal VS. Psychiatric Service Animal.

Some people confuse Emotional Support Animals (ESAs) with Psychiatric Service Animals (PSAs). They think that "training" a dog to kiss on command or jump in their lap, or be hugged is a task qualifying the animal as a service animal.

Real tasks for PSDs (psychiatric service dogs) include:

counterbalance/bracing for a handler dizzy from medication,

waking the handler on the sound of an alarm when the handler is heavily medicated and sleeps through alarms,

doing room searches or turning on lights for persons with PTSD,

blocking persons in dissociative episodes from wandering into danger (i.e. traffic),

leading a disoriented handler to a designated person or place, and so on.

Emotional Support Animals or Comfort Animals are often used as part of a medical treatment plan as therapy animals, they are not considered service animals under the ADA.

These support animals provide companionship, relieve loneliness, and sometimes help with depression, anxiety, and certain phobias. Therapy animals provide people with therapeutic contact, usually in a clinical setting, to improve their physical, social, emotional, and/or cognitive functioning.