In today’s column, I am continuing my ongoing series about the impact of generative AI in the health and medical realm.
Okay, so hopefully we all agree that a pet is a pet and does not land into the reserved territory of Service Animals and Emotional Support Animals. These are all three distinct considerations.“Under the Americans with Disabilities Act , a Service Animal is defined as “a dog that has been individually trained to do work or perform tasks for an individual with a disability. The task performed by the dog must be directly related to the person's disability”. .
“For a person to legally have an emotional support animal , the owner must be considered to have a qualifying mental health or psychiatric disability by a licensed mental health professional , which is documented by a properly formatted prescription letter. The difference between a legitimate ESA and a pet is the letter from your licensed mental health professional.” .
I dare say that a lot of people have no idea about the above definition of ESA or only vaguely comprehend what an ESA is all about. Many people mistakenly believe that an ESA is the same as whatever pet you might have. Some people conflate Service Animals and Emotional Support Animals, falsely believing those are the same.I hope this sets the record straight and that you are mentally prepared to further discuss Emotional Support Animals as a conceptual construct.
Websites that lure in the innocent wishing to comply with ESA and then summarily dupe them, rip them off, or plant a computer virus on their computer. Public places and private spaces are often not well-equipped for Emotional Support Animals end up compromising the safety or well-being of others. Questions about the validity of such policies on a mental health basis and the nature of underlying scientific research concerning the practice.A common comment by some is that ESA is a good concept but that like many things in life, we sometimes mess-up and do not deserve new toys unless we can do a better job of properly making use of them.I’d like to briefly spotlight one of those controversies since it will materially relate to my discussion about the AI side of things.