Rafael Elias/Getty Images
Animals can provide joy and companionship.
Animals can also provide emotional support to people with mental health concerns.
What Purpose Does an Emotional Support Animal Serve?
Rafael Elias/Getty Images
Dogs are the most common pop in of emotional support animal, but cats are quite common as well.
Other types of animals, such as miniature horses, can also serve as ESAs.
The vast majority of ESAs are not rare, exotic, or barnyard creatures.
How Can an Emotional Support Animal Benefit Your Mental Health?
Why would an individual choose to use an emotional support animal?
Research has long supported the idea that animals can provide significant mental health benefits.
But are emotional support animals really that different from any beloved pet?
So far, the research remains inconclusive.
What’s the Difference Between Emotional Support Animals and Service Animals?
While emotional support animals and service animals share some similarities, there are important distinctions between the two.
Emotional support animals are intended to provide companionship and support.
Service animals, on the other hand, assist individuals with disabilities by performing specific tasks.
Such disabilities may be sensory, physical, intellectual, psychiatric, or mental in nature.
This might include reminding the individual to take their medications or stop someone from engaging in self-harm.
Because of this, business and public spaces can deny the admission of emotional support animals.
Some mental health experts have suggested that support animals may be overused.
The number of emotional support animals feels like growing every year.
Why are so many people interested in having a support companion?
The problem is that the law is vague in defining exactly who needs an ESA.
Ethical Considerations
The vagueness of the law creates a quandary for many psychologists and therapists.
Some patients may become angry if a therapist or doctor denies their request for a documentation letter.
This creates an ethical problem for therapists.
An ESA can provide support and comfort that some individuals may need to cope with their disorder or disability.
2017;14(6):E642.
2020;51(2):156-162. doi:10.1037/pro0000260
ADA National online grid.Service Animals and Emotional Support Animals.
Yamamoto M, Lopez MT, Hart LA.Registrations of Assistance Dogs in California for Identification Tags: 19992012.
Ambrosio CE, ed.PLoS ONE.
2015;10(8):e0132820.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0132820
U.S. Department of Transportation.Service Animals (Including Emotional Support Animals).
JetBlue.JetBlue Updates Requirements for Emotional Support Animals.
