Top Benefits of Service Dogs for People with Disabilities

Top Benefits of Service Dogs for People with Disabilities

Living with a disability often means finding new ways to overcome daily challenges, and service dogs are becoming an increasingly popular way to provide people who have disabilities with the assistance they need to ensure their well-being. At first glance, many people wonder what a dog can actually do when a person struggles with mobility or other issues that interfere with their independence. Yet, it only takes a few minutes of observing a service dog in action to realize that they can provide many benefits to their human companions.

Ensuring Around the Clock Assistance

It is often hard to find a consistent caregiver that can spend 24-hours a day with a person. In fact, even spouses are rarely around each other for that many hours since many people have to work or handle other responsibilities. However, service dogs are faithful companions that have no problem being constantly around the person that brings them so much joy.

Exercising Is More Enjoyable

People with physical disabilities that limit their mobility face the possibility of deteriorating muscles that can further hinder their abilities. For this reason, it is important for them to find ways to exercise throughout the day. Service dogs make working out fun by being a willing partner that will eagerly fetch balls and walk alongside their human companion. Their eager attitude also serves as motivation for people with disabilities who would never want to deprive their cherished dog of a walk or round of fetch.

Reducing Care-Giving Costs

Living on a budget can pose many challenges for people with disabilities who need assistance at home. This is especially true if multiple caregivers are needed throughout the day. Service dogs can reduce the amount of professional care a person needs by helping them with their daily activities. This way, a person with disabilities only has to cover the types of care that cannot be done with their service dog’s assistance such as medical-related procedures.

Increasing Self-Sufficiency

The amount of things a service dog can help with can be surprising since trained Golden Retriever dogs can retrieve objects, answer a doorbell and push an emergency alert button if their human companion shows signs of distress. This makes it possible for a person with disabilities to perform many parts of their daily routine without human assistance. Over time, service dogs become so accustomed to the routines of their human companions that they can even give them a nudge if something is forgotten such as a daily dose of medication.

Easing Anxiety

When a person encounters daily challenges due to their disability, simply acts such as going to the grocery store can generate anxiety. Service dogs naturally know when their human companion is upset, and all it takes is a gentle snuggle from their dog to put a person’s mind at ease. Some service dogs are specially trained to help people who cope with serious anxiety on a daily basis, and people are now training dogs to assist those with behavioral and emotional disorders such as ADHD and PTSD.

Alleviating Stress for Family Members

Service dogs are often viewed as simply helping those with disabilities. However, having a service dog in the home also reduces the burden on family caregivers. This is because the service dog can take over many tasks that can fill up a day such as retrieving a person’s sweater when they are cold or helping them answer the phone. Knowing that a service dog is with their loved one also provides peace of mind to families who can rely on their canine’s unique ability to sense potential dangers and respond accordingly.

Providing a Sense of Security

There are many times during the day when living with a disability may place a person in danger. For example, a person who is visually impaired takes a risk every time they cross a street or busy parking lot. Those with hearing loss who live at home alone may not hear an intruder coming through their door. Although a service dog cannot talk, they use body language to communicate with their human companion. If a person tries to cross the street while a car is coming, a dog will sit and refuse to move. Alternatively, seeing the dog bark and run toward an entrance may alert a person that someone is entering their home. Service dogs have saved humans from fires, vehicle accidents and other types of disasters all through following what they have been taught in their special training.

Promoting Socialization

People with disabilities who live alone face the threat of isolation. Even those who have regular visitors can find that long hours between seeing their friends and family can get lonely. Service dogs are loving companions that can ease the strain of loneliness. Whether a person is petting their adoring dog or talking to them throughout the day, they will receive social stimulation that is essential for positive mental health. Having a service dog also encourages people to get out of the house more since they can feel confident moving throughout their community with their dog’s assistance.

A Partner for Physical Therapy

Physical therapy is often a major part of a person’s treatment plan when they have a disability, and these sessions are known for being challenging. Having a service dog serve as a partner during exercises can ease the struggles a person encounters and turn therapy sessions into a fun time for bonding. For example, service dogs can be trained to assist with certain exercises by doing things such as lying across a person’s legs to provide counterweight during sit ups. The bond between humans and dogs was established way back in ancient history, and we are still discovering just how amazing this relationship can be for helping ease the burden for people with disabilities. Service dogs can be found throughout every community as they help people deal with physical disabilities and emotional traumas while fulfilling companionship needs. Whether a person in your life needs help around the house or they simply need a companion, you can bet that a service dog will provide them with benefits that impact their quality of life and support independence.

More Research Supports Emotional & Psychological Benefits of Service Dogs

Humans have relied upon their canine companions for support for thousands of years. Whether it’s for companionship, a hunting partner, or guidance and assistance in maintaining independence in the face of a disability, dogs provide their owners and handlers with immeasurable benefits from the moment of adoption until they reach the end of their lives. New evidence is showing that service dogs just might benefit handlers and their families psychologically, rather than just physically. That stands to change historic attitudes towards service dog benefits in the medical community, the service dog community and the research community.

Historic Attitudes Toward Service Dog Benefits

Until recently, medicine mostly focused on the physical and concrete benefits service dogs brought to their handlers. We knew that patients with disabilities were able to have more freedom, improved safety, improved function, and generally, better overall lives when paired with the right service dog as opposed to working with a caregiver alone. What we didn’t have was concrete proof of the service dog’s ability to benefit their handler emotionally and psychologically. Sure, plenty of people talked about it. In the service dog world, nearly every handler or patient has a deep love and respect for their animal. Depression and anxiety are unfortunate side effects of the exact conditions that lead patients to seek service dogs, and often, the same patients experiencing physical benefits would report a reduction in negative emotions, stress, and feelings of sadness related to their disability, too. Unfortunately, researchers discounted these viewpoints for quite some time. Because personal experience essentially amounts to anecdotal evidence, it either wasn’t taken seriously enough or was glossed over in favor of more specific benefits (like improved physical function). Making it even more difficult to judge these experiences was the fact that physical and emotional health are so intimately connected; there’s crossover, and it can be difficult to tell which type of improvement spurs on the other. Often, scientists would assume that improvements to executive function or physical health led to emotional improvement rather than the sheer presence of a service dog alone. Either way, service dog support often plays a critical role in healing and management of people with disabilities and/or illnesses. It’s about so much more than just physical support; a service dog can be a friend, a caregiver, a companion, or even quite literally a physical support when needed. Emotional and psychological benefits are just the icing on the cake in a perfect package, even if they haven’t been respected or recognized fully until the last little while.

New Evidence Changing the Veterinary Medicine & Animal Care Industry

Unlike previous years, new research by industry specialists appears to contain better proof of what many of us knew in the first place through experience --- service dogs drastically improve emotional and psychological health for people,  no matter what the disease or disorder at hand. Rather than anecdotal evidence alone, most of the new research identifies a direct concrete and connectable link between the presence of a service dog and improved psychological health. If future research produces results like the study we’re about to discuss, it’s very possible that the entire service dog industry could shift, expand, and become much more accessible to patients.

Study & Research Points

The most current four-year study in progress at Purdue is showing surprisingly positive results about the ancillary benefits service dogs provide to their handlers. The study group leading the research is a collaboration between Elanco Animal Health and  Canine Assistants, a nonprofit organization that works with children and adults. Leading the research on behalf of all three groups is the esteemed Maggie O’Haire from Purdue. The first step in this multi-stage study saw researchers conduct an incredible 1,500 individual interviews for handlers working service dogs now and patients who are currently waiting to be matched with a service dog due to disability. Each of the interviews occurred over the telephone, but research leads relied upon scripting and strict study protocols to elevate them to the level of thoroughness required for an official study. This eliminated many variables that could have negatively influenced gathered information, rendering the data unreliable. Mainly, the interviews queried owners for their responses on topics relating to how handlers and their families worked with their dogs, how they benefitted, and most importantly, how each member of the family felt about the dog and whether they, too, shared a bond with the animal. The interview also touched on overall quality-of-life for service dog handlers and their families, acting as a sort of control between everyday quality-of-life improvements and those that were specifically tied to the use of a service dog.

First-Stage Results

What’s surprising many people wasn’t that they discovered a link at all; rather, it was just how obvious the correlation became even after the first 1,500 interviews. They found evidence in the form of direct causation that owning a service dog improves emotional health, coping skills, social function, and everyday experiences in work, school, social, and emotional experiences. The control group (families with at least one patient who is currently waitlisted to receive a service dog)  scored consistently lower in all of these areas. Because researchers closely matched both groups in other potential variables, the only assumption left to make was that it really was the service dog making the difference. It wasn’t just the handlers who showed improvement in these areas; researchers also identified improved scores in family members who didn’t directly utilize a service dog, but lived in the same residence as someone who did. Non-handler residents also experienced improved mood and overall emotional function throughout the study. Even families (assuming a core group living in the same home or environment with a service dog) functioned more efficiently and positively as a whole with a service dog than without. These outcomes are not surprising to anyone who’s had a service dog or worked with them in the past. After all, having a stalwart canine friend by your side at all times is pretty much the best way to encourage independence and freedom when you’re struggling with a disability like vision loss or PTSD. But that doesn’t make the results any less significant.

A Burgeoning Research Field

Currently, only patients with specific disabilities qualify for most national service dog programs. Unfortunately, even with the industry’s current restrictions, access to dogs is limited and patients frequently find themselves waitlisted. Funding, while available, is also limited, though patients who can adopt via a private breeder/trainer typically enjoy much faster access to specifically-trained pups. Either way, both the Purdue study and several other recent studies highlighting the emotional benefits of dog ownership are evidence of a coming change. Whereas most people believed service dogs were only suitable for the physically disabled, we may see that concept loosen over the next five years. That could spell an increase in available dogs, improvements to training, and perhaps most importantly, improvements in the lives of many, many more patients along the way. As research continues into emotional health and psychological benefits of owning a service dog, it’s likely that the medical community will expand their narrow of view of how and when service dogs can help. We’re more likely than ever to see doctors gain new respect for how useful service dogs can be for patients with schizophrenia, dissociative disorders, traumatic brain injury, chronic pain, chronic illness, dysautonomia and Autism. Patients with physical illnesses and disabilities will still benefit; the industry will simply grow to support and accommodate new needs.

Top Benefits of Service Dogs for People with Disabilities