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Finders Keepers Consignments | fkconsign.com
AVONDALE ESTATES • DECATUR
ANIMALS PROVIDE
ASSISTANCE, SUPPORT
AND COMFORT
Dr. Pamela Dorsett, an Atlanta
psychologist, likes to bring her
5-pound, 7-ounce dog Naomi to
work. Dorsett plans for Naomi to
become trained as a therapy dog.
With the exception of a
handful of folks who either
have allergies or
don’t care for dogs,
her clients really
enjoy Naomi,
Dorsett said. The
dog greets them,
frequently sits with
her patients and
sometimes licks
their hands, if the
client doesn’t object,
of course.
“Naomi has big
brown eyes; she’s
affectionate and
incredibly friendly,”
Dorsett said.
She views Naomi
as an asset to her
practice.
“I think she helps people feel
calmer. When I’m meeting new
clients, Naomi helps put them
at ease. It’s not an easy task
to talk to a complete stranger
about deeply personal issues,”
Dorsett said. “Greetings by a tiny
dog with big brown eyes can be
a welcome sight when entering
a situation that can be initially
uncomfortable.”
Service animals and
emotional support pets
Many people ask: what
distinguishes a service pet
from a comfort pet or an
emotional support animal,
such as a cat, dog, rabbit, etc.?
Readily available information
is listed on the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) website.
A service animal is “any dog
that is individually trained to do
work or perform tasks for the
benefit of an individual with a
disability, including a physical,
sensory, psychiatric, intellectual
or other mental disability.”
Some service animals can,
among other things, pull a
wheelchair, retrieve a dropped
item, alert a person to a
sound, remind a person about
medications or press an elevator
button on command. In fact,
some dogs have
even been trained
to detect oncoming
epileptic seizures or
sense the presence
of certain human
cancers.
The individual’s
disability and the
tasks performed
by a service
animal “must be
directly related to
the individual’s
disability,” states
the ADA.
Emotional
support pets, which
include comfort
animals and therapy dogs, are
not service animals (under
Title II and Title III of the ADA).
Support animals might help
with companionship, loneliness
and comfort, as well as
depression, anxiety and certain
phobias. However, they’re
not trained for performing
assistance acts. They bring
comfort to their owners, not
always others.
Making others happy is
the role of the therapy dog.
Physician Mark Perloe says his
dog Andrew is “trained to be
comfortable in certain settings,
such as nursing homes and
children’s hospitals.” He and
Andrew enjoy visiting both.
Therapy dogs provide
comfort to others at the
handler’s direction and they
must wear some type of special
gear when in service. Of course,
they have devoted owners.
Another choice for comfort
What if caring for a pet is
no longer an option? Of course,
there’s nothing like a real pet,
Judith L. Kanne,
RN, BSN, BA
is a registered nurse and
freelance writer who lives
in Atlanta.
AUGUST 2019
ATLANTASENIORLIFE.COM
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