Service animals are essential to many individuals with disabilities. Under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and California law, a service animal is a dog that has been individually trained to do work or perform tasks for an individual with a disability. Further, the specific task performed by the dog must be directly related to the person’s disability.
Dogs can be trained to assist the disabled with the activities of daily living and to provide safety by being trained to guide the blind, alert the deaf, protect a person having a seizure, assist a person in a wheelchair, and alert diabetics that their blood sugar is dangerously low or high.
Although a service animal must be a dog, the dog can be any breed. The dog does not need to be professionally trained, be certified, or wear anything that identifies it as a service animal. The handler is responsible for care and control of the dog. If the dog is out of control and the handler does not take action, the office staff can request the animal be removed from the office.
Medical offices must make reasonable efforts to accommodate individuals with disabilities by allowing service animals into the office. However, sometimes it is not obvious that the dog is a service animal. In order to avoid unlawful and discriminatory treatment of those with disabilities, office staff may only ask two specific questions: (1) is the dog a service animal required because of a disability? And, (2) what work or task has the dog been trained to perform? Office staff may not request documentation for the dog, require that the dog demonstrate its task, or ask about the nature of the individual’s disability.
Psychiatric Service Dogs and emotional support dogs are treated differently under the ADA and California law. Psychiatric service dogs are trained to recognize and respond to an individual’s need for help. They perform trained tasks that are directly related to the individual’s psychiatric disability. A psychiatric service dog may be trained to interrupt destructive behavior or remind an individual to take his or her medication.
In contrast, a dog that provides an individual with emotional comfort or a sense of safety, but is not specifically trained to perform a task directly related to the individual’s psychiatric disability, is an emotional support dog. Because they have not been trained to perform a specific job or task, they do not qualify as service animals.
Service dogs play a vital role in assisting disabled individuals to participate in life more independently. For more information about the ADA, visit www.ADA.gov or call the ADA Information Line at 800-514-0301 or 800-514-0383.
Kimberly Danebrock is a Senior Risk Management and Patient Safety Specialist for CAP. Questions or comments related to this article should be addressed to kdanebrock@CAPphysicians.com.