There is no commercial support for this activity.

About the speaker

Dr. Janet Hoy-Gerlach is a practicing licensed clinical social worker, researcher, author, and a veterinary social worker at Open Door Veterinary Collective (ODVC).  ODVC is a US-based training and technical assistance non-profit focused on increasing access to veterinary care and related supports that help people and companion animals stay healthy and together.

Janet’s research on Emotional Support Animals (ESAs) has been cited in sources such as Discover Magazine, Business Insider, the Guardian, and Psychology Today.   She is an expert witness on ESAs for the U.S. Department of Justice, and is the lead author of Human-Animal Interaction: A Social Work Guide, a peer reviewed book published by National Association of Social Work (NASW) Press.

Janet started her career as an outreach case manager working with adults living with chronic mental illness and addiction, and provided a range of services for over two decades in urban community behavioral health settings. She then worked for over a decade at a R1 university in Ohio; where she was a tenured full professor of social work, serving as the lead faculty for the graduate social work mental health tract with a joint appointment in psychiatry. Janet now speaks and trains internationally on recognizing and supporting the mutual well-being of humans, animals, and communities within and across human and animal service systems, serves as a part-time veterinary social worker for ODVC, and provides individual outpatient therapy at Resilient Minds Behavioral Health in the Greater Pittsburgh area. 

Disclosure Statements

Sheppard Pratt holds the standard that its continuing medical education programs should be free of commercial bias and conflict of interest. In accord with Sheppard Pratt's Disclosure Policy, as well as standards of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) and the American Medical Association (AMA), all planners, reviewers, speakers and persons in control of content have been asked to disclose any relationship he /she has with any entity producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing health care goods or services consumed by, or used on, patients, during the past 24 months. All planners, reviewers and speakers have also been asked to disclose any payments accepted for this lecture from any entity besides Sheppard Pratt, and if there will be discussion of any products, services or off-label uses of product(s) during this presentation.

Janet Hoy-Gerlach, PhD, LCSW, LISW-S, reports that she is a researcher/consultant for Ask About Pets! during the past 24 months. She will not discuss any products, services, or off-label uses in this presentation. All relationships have been mitigated through review.

Event Planners/Reviewers Disclosures: The following event planners and/or reviewers are reported as having no financial interest, arrangement or affiliation with any entity producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing health care goods or services consumed by, or used on, patients, during the past 24 months: Todd Peters, MD, Michael C. Hann, MD, MBA, Ronald Means, MD, Rajeev Krishna, MD, PhD, MBA, Louis Marino, MD, Devi Bhuyan, PsyD, Manan Shah, MD, Vittoria DeLucia, MD, Chad J. Lennon, MD, Faith Dickerson, PhD, MPH, Carrie Etheridge, LCSW-C, April Sobiech, LCSW-C, Latia Suite, LCSW-C, Tom Flis, MS, BCBA, LBA, LCPC, Lisa Illum, MLIS, MEd, and Jennifer Tornabene.