Policy, Program, and Other Supports

This tip sheet provides practical guidance for clinicians on navigating adolescent use of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots for mental health support. As platforms such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Meta AI, and Character.AI become integrated into adolescents’ daily lives, clinicians should routinely assess and monitor chatbot use, understanding both the potential benefits and risks.

An Emotional Support Animal (ESA) is an animal that provides therapeutic benefit (e.g., emotional support, comfort, companionship) to a person with a mental health or psychiatric disability (such as a serious mental health condition). An ESA is not considered a Service Animal, but under U.S. law, an emotional support animal is also not considered a pet and is generally not restricted by the type of animal^{.1, 2} Any domesticated animal may be considered as an ESA (e.g., cats, dogs, mice, rabbits, birds, hedgehogs, rats, minipigs, ferrets, etc.) and they can be any age. However, an ESA must be able to be manageable in public and does not create a nuisance. In this tip sheet we describe what an Emotional Support Animal is an is not as well as how someone can look into getting one.

Do you know that you can take your Emotional Support Animal (ESA) with you to college? Find out more about bringing your ESA to college with you in this tip sheet.

Transitions ACR researchers Tracy Neville, Emily Sudbrock, and Dee Logan presented at the 2023 KTDRR Conference on Nov. 6-9, 2023.