There are so many reasons clients experience anxiety and panic when accessing the community such as mental health difficulties or neurodivergence. Assistance dogs can support community access by providing tasks such as:

• alerting to increasing anxiety
• fetching support items like ear defenders & fidgits
• deep pressure therapy
• find and lead to parent/ carer/ partner/ support person
• follow the leader (dog trained to follow a person so the handler doesn't need to worry about navigation)
• find and lead to nearest exit
• find and lead to a seat
• find eloped/ run off/ hiding person 
• interrupt or redirect from self injurious behaviour like arm biting, scratching etc.
• provide tactile grounding via nuzzling or licking
• provide dual handling for reassurance and increased sense of safety
• create space around the handler
• jump up to encourage handler to sit down if they're becoming highly agitated to then enable deep pressure, preventing elopement. 
• Interrupt dissociative or shut down episode
• fetch drink or snack from designated spot e.g. from bag
• pass information card to bystanders if needed