I’m a little over halfway done with the fall semester of my SENIOR year! I can honestly say these 3 1/2 years have flown by so far. This semester has been filled to the brim with coursework…we’re getting pretty close to the end. I haven’t felt very inspired to write, but I decided today I would address something that I’ve been asked several times over the past 3 months.
How did you get an ESA? For those who don’t know, ESA stands for Emotional Support Animal, and yes, I have one. He is a wonderful, fluffy, happy-go-lucky Goldendoodle named Goose.
An ESA is defined through dictionary.com as “an animal that provides therapeutic benefit to a person diagnosed with a psychological disorder as anxiety, depression, or PTSD, and that is allowed to accompany the person in certain public places where pets are not allowed.” Typically, people are seeking ESAs for residential areas. In my case, I wanted Goose to be allowed in my college dorm.
Now, there are several skeptics out there and I can honestly say that there certainly are people who abuse this system and get an ESA just so they can have a puppy. What I’m going to focus on today is the process of attaining the ESA recommendation letter, which a college or university accommodations department must approve. (I can’t speak to getting a letter for the private residential side of things)
There is a bit of a process to get approved/recommended for an ESA and it begins with finding a mental health professional.
The mental health professional MUST be a licensed professional in order for your recommendation letter to be accepted by the University ADA department. Typically, a college or university has a mental health professional on campus. That is the case for my university, however, when I was going through this process, it was summertime and those services were not available to me. So, I looked elsewhere. If you are on campus and want to see if you qualify, I would recommend setting up a meeting with your campus mental health professional. If you google “ESA certification” lots of sites will pop up. I went with one that was recommended to me by another blogger: https://www.certapet.com/
The process is pretty simple. You go to certapet.com and click “Getting Started” in the top right. From there, you complete an online pre-screening assessment to see if you qualify for services. If you qualify, you move on in the process and get matched with a mental health professional who will set up a session/meeting with you. This meeting works as your evaluation, and your mental health professional will work with you to decide if an Emotional Support Animal is beneficial to you, or if you need additional services.
If your mental health professional determines you are a good candidate for an ESA, they will draft and sign a letter. They will send you a hard copy, and upload it to your patient portal, where you can access it online. I emailed my university’s Accommodations Director prior to this process, so I already had filled out an application. After filling out your school’s application, you need to send that letter to your University Accommodations Director. If approved through your school, they usually send some sort of contract for you to sign. Then, your ESA will need a clean bill of health from your veterinarian, as well as up-to-date shot records and records of sterility (spay/neuter).
Now for some misconceptions, I want to personally address:
- An ESA will make me happy
To an extent, yes. If your ESA does its job, it probably will bring you some happiness and some stress relief, as well as relief to whatever diagnosis you might have. But ultimately, the only thing that will fulfill your life is a relationship with Jesus Christ, and not even an adorably fluffy puppy can replace that.
2. I can get a recommendation letter and then bring my new puppy to campus.
If you want to abuse the system, I suppose. At my university, we have several ESAs in the form of dogs, cats, and a rabbit. For dogs, it makes a significant impact on the community if your dog is not well trained (for instance, potty trained, kennel trained, barking loudly all the time, etc.) If you have an animal that is somewhat aggressive at all, DO NOT get it certified. That will never end up well. If you are thinking about getting a young dog certified, I recommend crate training immediately if not already done, using a bark or remote shock/vibrate collar to correct bad or unwanted behaviors, and ensuring the comfort of the people living around you with your animal. It’s crucial that good relationships are established.
I want to mention again that I only have experience with this in the campus housing aspect, and not in the private or residential area. I don’t have a letter for Goose to travel with me by plane either, although there is an option through CertaPet to do that, as well. Finally, don’t expect an ESA to “fix” you. Like I said, there’s only One for that.