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PSYCHIATRIC DOGS’ ASSISTANCE TO MENTALLY CHALLENGED 1

Psychiatric Assistance of Dogs to Mentally Challenged

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

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PSYCHIATRIC DOGS’ ASSISTANCE TO MENTALLY CHALLENGED 2

Abstract

Those specified trained dogs that are well equipped to be able to provide a helping hand

to its owner that in this case has been found to have sues to do with mental health such as the

“post-traumatic stress disorder” (PTSD), or schizophrenia, or even the rare cases which are

always associated to bipolar disorders. They are well or rather commonly referred to as the PAD

which is an abbreviation of psychiatric assistance dog. Many studies on this issues shows that not

much is well known on those individuals that may happen to be the handles of these dogs, or

even to say the specific breed of these creatures leave alone being able identify the main duty

that they could be involved in. some of the dg or PAD owners, that have managed to participate

in the interviews that were majorly about the dogs reveals that they had got the information on

these dogs majorly from different sources. About 37%, 32% and 30% were from the online

source, medics and other health workers, and then lastly the others were also able to get from the

owners’ or the family together with the allies of those that did own the PAD. Also that PAD that

has been used in the survey were of different genders, age or even he breed. Many of the PAD

had been trained by the owners or in other cases they had been trained by both the handler and a

professional tutor.
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Introduction

Not just dogs, but also other animals in general have been very instrumental in providing

help to people with disabilities and not just mental disorders a recorded by the researches done

over a long period, where the official notation tan in the early 19th century. Currently the PAD

are in most instances provided with these trainings to aid in numerous range of activities. These

activities does range from the physical engagements, mental or psychiatric disabilities on

person’s together with being packaged so as to ensure support in the entire community. Just like

it’s been stated above PADs are well specified kind of dogs that have been trained in order to

provide an assistance to its handlers who in the process may have been characterized with mental

disorders.

In some states PADs are being used for duties such as the guiding and hearing purposes.

Under the law regulations these categories of dogs have their rights covered under zintertntional

regulations in the commonwealth acts that deals with the disabilities. Which does allow for all

the dogs that have been properly trained be used as the help dogs. However is said that animals

are not for any necessity trained to provide therapeutically services that’s why it’s said that PAD

are completely very different from another group of dogs known as the “emotional support dogs”

which then are specifically meant to provide therapy services to its handlers. The laws in regards

to the service providing dog in the state of Australia for instance restricts the ESD which are the

service providing dogs from getting in the public regions that are specifically closed for all the

dogs.

PADs do not need to be of any specified kid of breed, but the size of the dog being

considered has to be fit enough to execute the purpose is to be trained for. With this they can

easily be able to access the community service activities some of which are already prohibited
PSYCHIATRIC DOGS’ ASSISTANCE TO MENTALLY CHALLENGED 4

for their kind. Thus in Australia any person that has experienced any form of mental disorder has

the right to apply for a PAD to aid them in their daily routine.alos it’s important to note that the

PADs can for sure be tutored by those individuals who may eventually become the owners of the

dog, or at the same time they may also be trained by a professional trainer together with the

owner. Similarly others could also b tutored by a professional organizations that specializes in

that work. However numerous studies don so far do revel that very less is for sure known about

these people that own the PADs, together with the history of the mental diagnosis ,the breed or

type of the dog that are being used or even the duties or just the functionalities that are executed

by these dogs.

It’s believed that having conclusive comprehension of the wants that drive these people

and the connections that do grow between the handlers of the dogs together with the dogs

themselves, does work magic especially when it works to do with making choices on the kind

of a dog to be adopted, the specified training for that dog to be accorded, as well as employing

the use of the assistant dogs on those persons that have been diagnosed with mental disorders.

Thus as a result of this, most owners of the PADs were called on to participate in online studies

done by the some NGOs known the ”mindDog” in order to extract more knowledge from these

that already had some experience with the dog. This is an Australian organization that has been

subscribed with the purpose of securing the dogs for all those persons that have been found with

the defect of mental disorders.


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Methods

Participants

Considering the mindDog, they did call on a good number of their customers at that

moment (n=600) to be involved in an online research using some online application which was

known as “SurveyMonkey” the kind of quiz use in that survey involved the coerced options ,

many choices questions together with the yes or no questions. They were at also point trying to

identify the connection among these people and their dog. The main participants of this survey

were only the clients of the mindDog that did own the PADs. Thus the a third (which is

approximately n=199.33%) of those people that qualified to be involved in the research did come

in and provide feedback in the research. it was also reported that the average age number for

those that participated was close to a 47 years but the general range of the age of the participants

was 10 all the way to 75 years. from that data, the many of the participants were females they

did make up the 77% of the total number. more so the areas of residents for the participants was

checked and it came out very clear that, close to 58% of all the participants were deemed to

come from the urban set ups.

Materials

Farther in the collection of data it’s been report that they employed use of techniques

such as the “Chi-Square test”. Furthermore the SurveyMonkey being the online application was

very much instrumental in getting all those clients invited to the survey provide their thoughts.

Furthermore there was also use of the online questionnaire which involved the open ended

questions and the closed ended questions questionnaires.


PSYCHIATRIC DOGS’ ASSISTANCE TO MENTALLY CHALLENGED 6

Procedures

This was specifically used in the independent evaluations and was majorly very

instrumental in establishing the connection in the handler’s health conditions; with that function

or duty that had been delegated to the dog, the type or kind of the dog one has any possibility

that it will really have any effect on the health of the owner. The final and totaling outcome of

the survey can found in the result and the discussing section. This data obtained from the

reaction section ha farther has been grouped into varies categorizations which addresses the

connection of the people to their dogs.


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Conclusion

This research is expected to be very much instrumental n terms of the contribution to the family

o researchers especially those done in relation to the dogs that are used by humans due to their

health conditions. The PADs to be specific with a touch on their distributions and more so those

persons in Australia that own the dogs, their origins together with the duties they are expected to

perform. From the report is also important to note that pas cc b f any kind there is no specified

breed r kind that is specifically meant to become a PAD. Also its not necessary that they have to

be born and grow close to the current handler for them to be able execute their duties.fnally

having the ability to grasp the art getting to fully comprehend the connection between PADs and

these people living with disabilities does enables one in making decisions such as the best option

to be allocated, the functionalities that the dog can accomplish among many more other.
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References

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Appendix

List of all the material that was used in the data collection together with the analysis;

SurveyMonkey: this is an online or internet application which is majorly used in developing and

using formal online survey researches. This software app was majorly used to collect data online

from the PAD users.

Chi-Square test: it’s a data manipulation methodology that in this project was 9very instrumental

in determine the connection between the PADs and the handlers.

Questionnaires: these are questions which may be open ended or closed ended questions. They

are used in collecting the responses from the respondents.

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