Unleashing Hope: Psychiatric Service Dogs Bring Comfort and Connection

Radar and Elizabeth photo: Joybound

At Joybound People & Pets, shelter dogs are discovering a purpose that goes beyond finding a new home. These pups are training to become compassionate lifelines to people facing mental health challenges, providing hope and healing through the powerful human-animal bond.

Joybound’s Shelter to Service program helps combat America’s ongoing mental health crisis by providing psychiatric service dogs to anyone with a diagnosed need for assistance. The program transforms shelter dogs into trained psychiatric service animals, offering essential support at no cost to veterans, first responders, and others coping with conditions like anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress. As Ethan, a Shelter to Service graduate, sums it up, “My service dog has changed my life and brought me back to me.” 

How Dogs Help

According to the CDC and Mental Health America, one in five U.S. adults - over 59 million people - currently experience some form of mental illness (CDC, 2023 and Mental Health America, 2023). Psychiatric service dogs, like the ones provided through Shelter to Service, can help these individuals regain access to public areas and social activities that had previously seemed out of reach. 

Their goals may be as simple as feeling comfortable in grocery stores or joining their family on their next trip to an amusement park. A psychiatric service dog can help by creating space in crowds, alerting their handler to the early stages of a panic attack, or providing deep pressure therapy to ground the handler after an emotional episode. For veterans suffering from night terrors, a service dog can soothe them when they wake in fear and help bring them back to the present.

In addition to building confidence in social settings, Joybound’s service dogs can provide complementary support for their handler’s treatment plans by reminding them to take medications or helping them find lost items. Research published in Frontiers in Veterinary Science (Yount et al., 2019) shows that psychiatric service dogs can also reduce the need for suicide-related treatments and that owners of these dogs are more likely to attend general appointments. 

But Joybound’s Shelter to Service program is about more than just training service dogs. It’s also a way to foster a more compassionate community. Through its public recognition of the human-animal bond, the program helps break down stigmas around mental health issues, creating a network of support and understanding. Each service dog becomes a bridge, not only aiding their companion but also raising awareness among individuals in the community about the importance of mental health support.

Foster Trainers Are the Key

A critical part of the Shelter to Service program are its foster trainers: volunteers who work directly with each dog over a 15-week training period, guiding them from shelter life to service with their new person. Foster trainers receive comprehensive resources, from supplies and veterinary support to a weekly transportation stipend and over 75 hours of structured training. 

In fact, Joybound recently expanded its foster trainer program to include volunteers as young as 16 with parental approval, providing a hands-on, impactful experience for young adults looking to build skills, contribute to their communities, and potentially prepare for careers in animal wellness or mental health support. This experience allows older teens to play a vital role in mental health advocacy and, needless to say, it also looks great on a college application.

For adults of any age wishing to deepen their skills, Joybound also offers resources to help foster trainers prepare for the Certified Professional Dog Trainer-Knowledge Assessed (CPDT-KA) certification. This additional opportunity provides trainers with professional-level skills, paving the way for future careers in animal training and wellness.

Does This Sound Like You?

Are you ready to make a meaningful impact in someone’s life while giving a shelter dog a new purpose? Joybound is actively seeking foster trainers to help shape the future of mental health support, one dog and one person at a time. 

Learn more about how to be part of this exciting initiative at joybound.org. You’ll be glad you did.