How to talk to your Doctor about a Sevice Dog | How to Get a Service Dog Tips

hi my name is Sarah and this is my service dog Bailey and today I want to talk a little bit about how to bring up a service dog to your doctor's I know that a lot of people have different opinions on this on whether it should always be the doctor to make the first move about a service dog or whether it's okay for a handler - or a future Handler to suggest that and make that first step in my opinion whoever knows the research about it or thinks of it as a potential solution first is okay to bring it up as long as it's a viable solution for what struggles a person is facing it's in the u.s. it's not required to have a doctor's prescription or a letter about your service animal unless it is for housing or flying those are the only two things that require or potentially could require a letter either to be provided to the airline saying you know your animal is an emotional support animal or a psychiatric service animal because the law treats those two the same or for housing assistance animals all fall under the same umbrella term for the Fair Housing Act but the Americans with Disabilities Act does not require any letters to prove that an animal has been prescribed or saying that they deserve access so the first thing you want to do is make a list write down how your disability affects you do today on the Americans with Disabilities Act does to find a disability as something that affects your ability to complete and perform day-to-day activities it also includes in that definition a condition that has the history of doing so or the perception of doing so but that gets into the security of the definition so I do want to mention that that part is there but we're going to focus more on the it currently affects your day-to-day life after you have a list of how your disability affects you you want to think about what tasks can an animal or a dog be trained to perform to help you with that so for example if you can't hear when someone is approaching you and you would like a dog to alert to you like with a nudge on the hand of the side that the person is approaching you on that is a task that they can be trained to perform if you struggle to pick things up that you've dropped because of some sort of cardiac the condition or honestly any other number of conditions that could do that then you can train an animal to pick up dropped items or pick up items that you point at you can also train a task to guide you out of an area if you start to have a panic attack to get you to a safe in quiet space and that is another task that can be trained so you want to in your research come up with a list of tasks that can be trained I would also join some Facebook groups related to service animals look at some forums ask questions in most of the Facebook groups I'm in for service dog handlers if you post something like hello I struggle with this I'm looking into getting a service animal to help me out what are some things that I should consider or what are some tasks that you think my dog could help a dog could help me to mitigate my disability you want to get as much information as possible as what this would look like for you as you're considering all of that you also want to consider what it would look like if this idea came to fruition what would life be like free if you actually had a service animal so if you are you came to get a service animal for extreme anxiety for example sometimes having a service dog brings all the attention to you everywhere you go people are looking your way you get a lot of strangers coming up to you in public things like that if that's something you can handle then a service dog might be a viable option if that would just make your condition worse and make it harder for you to cope maybe it's not the option for you another example is that if you are struggling to take care of yourself on a day to day basis or you don't think you could take care of another living being that's another thing to consider service animals are not like any other kind of medical equipment they are living breathing creatures that require exercise and love and attention and grooming and bathing and feeding it's like having a child that your life also depends on sometimes so it's very important that you have the time and energy and financial capacity to take care of them so once you have done all the research you can do and then continue to research after that the next step is going to be to create a list of talking points I recommend going into this conversation with your provider with a list of five talking points maybe a max of ten if you're really ambitious but I suggest keeping it closer to five because you don't want to just throw a bunch of information at them and just expect them to say yes but you also don't want to just mention one or two things and it be thrown under the rug you want to give them enough information so they can then do their own research or start to consider what you're saying so on this list of talking points might be how your disability affects you do today and specific tasks that can be used to help you with those it might also be helpful to think about what it would look like if you had a service animal and the independence that you would gain and talk to you provider about how it would be helpful to you and how it would impact your life the purpose of this conversation is to introduce the idea not to brainwash your provider into just writing you a letter or giving you a prescription after making your talking points you are going to want to make that appointment with your doctor my suggestion is to give them a heads up if you can whoever you're scheduling the appointment with let them know in this conversation in this appointment I'm going to bring up the potential of having a service animal so that they can know what's going what might be talked about so that if they want to do prior research they can or they can choose to wait to hear what you have to say it's important that you're not treating your doctor in this as someone you just have to convince or someone who doesn't know anything on the topic because they are medical professionals and some of them know a lot about service animals and some of them know nothing and so I think it would be pretty safe to assume that your provider is somewhere in the middle and not on either extreme and then just adapt your conversation to what they asked you and what they seem to know once you're there after you schedule the appointment and you give them a heads-up you want to have that list of talking points and address every point on it I would also take notes on what your provider has to say like I said they are a medical professional and so their word is very valid and you want to take them their opinions into consideration because they at the end of the day they are your medical health care provider while they are your medical professional and their opinion is to be valued if having a service dog is going to be the best option for you and receiving the proper care and treatment for whatever disability you struggle with then you want to have that option completely available to you you want to be able to have that medical device to use so don't back down right away if they say no listen to what they have to say take it into consideration do more research and if you need to come back another time or several more times to revisit this discussion then do so getting a service animal is not a quick one month to month process it is it takes two years to train a service animal typically and if you are on our training that's going to take that long and if you are getting it from a program depending on the program you might be on a wait list that is shorter or longer than that but it's not a quick process at all it's something that takes time and so if you want a quick fix a service animal is not going to be your best option but if you need a long-term medical device to help you you know mitigate your disability and its effects on your life then it might be depending on what your disability is and the tasks you would like to train so as this conversation with your medical healthcare provider it comes to a close and if they have told you you know this is a good idea or if they say do some more research and get back to me let's both you know figure something out and then come together and talk about it another time later and see where we're both at some things you might want to consider is whether or not you would get a program trained or and you would own or train your own dog I do owner trained Bailey with the help of a professional trainer especially with her public access skills but I do think program dogs do have a lot of benefits and I would always recommend a program dog before I recommend owner training your own dog but that is the topic of another video but consider what both options would look like for you do some research on those if for your housing situation or if you know you need to fly any time soon then it would be very beneficial to get a letter from your health care provider about a prescription or a letter stating that you need a service animal that would also be very helpful in applying to programs because they typically ask for a doctor's now I'm stating that you are disabled and that this is how it impacts you and how a service dog would be helpful like I said earlier a letter is not required by any means except by some housing providers and if your service animal is a psychiatric service animal then it's required for airplane travel as of 2018 unless that changes overall you should look at this conversation with your doctor as a continuing one if your condition improves or worsens or just changes sometimes the service animal will always be the best option for you and sometimes it will be some people are of the opinion that a service dog should be a last resort as part of your treatment plan personally I am NOT that mindset I think that if a service animal would benefit you and that you would be able to care for them and that you know tasks trained they would assist you in mitigating your disability in a way that another assistive device or location might not be able to then you should go for it it takes years and years to figure out medication combos or treatment plans for people and I'm just not a fan of waiting you know the five six seven years that it could take to try all the different drugs out there and not try a service dog all that time when it could be really helpful for you that is just my personal opinion about whether or not service dogs should be last reports but like I said a lot of people have differing opinions on that and it's important to understand that your doctor might have a different opinion and so if you guys don't see eye to eye it's important that you talk through that and you have a continuous discussion about what it would mean to be able to have a service dog I just want to know again I'm having a letter or a prescription for a service dog is not required in the US for public access or you know just to have a service dog in general but for housing and airplanes it might be depending on your situation but it is very highly recommended because adding something to your treatment plan that should typically be something that you're discussing with your medical professionals to see how it's going to fit in to your whole treatment plan and in addition it just helps to have a third party who knows your condition or knows your disability and how it affects you and how it affects other people with the same condition and talking about what tasks or what ways an animal might be able to help you so they might see things that you can't see that the dog or animal could be trained to help you in which is also very helpful so that is my overall guide on how to bring up a service dog to your doctors basically do research do more research make a list of things to talk about with your doctor and actually say it to them and continue this conversation that is a very short summary of what I talked about in this video if you have any suggestions for future videos please put it in the comments down below if you think I missed something or you have any other tips for people wanting to bring this up to their doctor put it in the comments below thank you so much for watching and I hope to see you in my next video thanks bye

Channel: Bailey the Service Pupper

Views: 43,193

Keywords: service dog, doctors, service animal, doctors appointments, treatment plan, PTSD, diabetes, EDS, mobility, medical alert, medical response, ADA, doctors note, prescription, FHA, Americans with disabilities act, ACAA, lab mix, dog, how to get a service dog, service dog in training, service dog training, service dog vlog, psychiatric service dog, service dog in training puppy, service dogs for anxiety

Id: utQMvQmG2Ac

Length: 15min 15sec (915 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 11 2018