Rusty is a five year old, Golden Retriever who is highly trained to assist in time of crisis. His main job is working as a Mental Health Specialist with DMAT-FL4 to provide support to doctors and nurses who deploy after a traumatic event. He has deployed in the aftermath of Hurricane Charlie and several other disasters to assist with providing medical services to communities that were impacted and needed assistance with medical needs.

Mental health service dogs can assist clients in processing traumatic events. Help depressed client’s with increasing socialization and actually decrease depression symptoms. Children with severe ADHD and conduct disorder have shown a decrease in aggressive behavior and improvement in attention span. Patients with autism or developmental disabilities had increased socialization and improved attention. Patients with Alzheimer’s disease had improved attention and decreased aggression and anger.

It has also been show individuals with disorders like agoraphobia and dissociative disorders who are exposed to mental health service dogs have a marked decrease in symptoms and an increase in social competence. People can become more joyous, communicative, expressive, and calm.