'Bogus' emotional support animal letters; Wisconsin investigates psychologist
'Bogus' emotional support animal letters; Wisconsin investigates psychologist
A Waukesha County business says it can help you get approved to live with your dog or cat – even if your landlord won't allow pets. It's a service one psychology expert calls "professional nonsense."
ELM GROVE, Wis. - A Waukesha County business said it can help you get approved to live with your dog or cat – even if your landlord won't allow pets. It's an online letter-writing service one psychology expert calls "professional nonsense."
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No pets allowed? No problem
What we know:
Touch ESA operates online, but lists an office address in Elm Grove. Its founder promises to hook you up with an official disability letter declaring your dog or cat an emotional support animal, a designation that confers certain federal disability rights.
FOX6 Investigators found you don't even have to talk to a therapist. All you need is about $50 and about 15 minutes.
ESAs are real
Why you should care:
Emotional support animals are a real thing that some mental health experts believe can help individuals cope with severe psychological challenges. After all, there's hardly a stronger bond than the one between humans and pets.
"If I didn’t have him," said Kellie Farrell of her 8-year-old dog, West, "I would really struggle."
Then again, it's not easy finding an apartment that allows pit bulls.
"They’re so misunderstood," Farrell said.
Kellie Farrell asked her doctor, with whom she has a longstanding health care relationship, to write her a letter declaring her pit bull, West, an emotional support animal.
So Farrell asked her doctor to write a letter proclaiming her pit bill to be an emotional support animal.
"1,2,3, he was in. Very easy," Farrell said.
Farrell said she genuinely struggles with anxiety and depression. West gives her purpose.
"Once we get out and get moving, I get those endorphins. I see him happy. I feel happy. And the entire day, like, already shifts," Farrell said.
Farrell's emotional support animal was approved by her own doctor, with whom she has a longstanding health care relationship. Her doctor knows all about her mental health diagnoses and is familiar with the important role West plays in ameliorating her symptoms.
But not everyone wants to spend the time and money finding a healthcare provider who will approve an ESA.
Ease your stress
The Sales Pitch:
That's why Chris Sass said he started Touch ESA.
"We have a service here that can help ease your stress," Sass said.
Touch ESA is a website that boasts the "lowest-cost emotional support letters anywhere." According to the site, you can get a $49 "housing letter" to help you keep a pet where pets are not allowed.
"It's not a money game," Sass said. "It's more of a cause."
Reliable documentation
The backstory:
Touch ESA is just one among scores of letter writing services that have emerged since 2013, when the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) declared that people with disabilities should be allowed to live with emotional support animals, provided they submit "reliable documentation" of a disability-related need.
"You can get a $49 letter that unlocks federal disability rights," said Chaz Stevens of Boca Raton, Florida. "And somehow, that’s mental health care."
For years, Stevens ran a competing website called ESA Doggy.
"I’m raising my hand. I created part of the problem," Stevens said.
Now the self-described "ESA Compliance Provocateur" said he "tests" other websites to expose their business practices.
"I am trying to make right what I did wrong, five, six, seven years ago," Stevens said.
Trying to avoid that fee
The Set Up:
When Stevens ordered a letter from Touch ESA in August, he admitted on the form he didn't really need one.
"I have no psychological diagnosis or mental health conditions," Stevens wrote. "My landlord charges pet rent, and I'm simply trying to avoid that fee."
Within the hour, based on nothing more than a brief exchange of text messages, Stevens received an email.
Attached to that email was a medical determination letter finding Stevens has an "emotional and mental disability" that limits his social interactions and ability to cope with stress and anxiety. For that, it said, Stevens needs Scooby Doo, his emotional support labrador, as a reasonable accommodation under the Fair Housing Act. The letter is signed by Dr. Lauri Gebhard, a licensed Wisconsin psychologist Stevens has never met; never talked to.
"It's bogus," Stevens said. "It’s fraudulent."
"Is that fraud?" asked FOX6 Investigator Bryan Polcyn.
"You know, that's… is it fraud?" Sass said as he cast his eyes upward, hesitating. "I made a mistake."
Sass eventually explained that Stevens said it was urgent. Sass mistook Stevens for a different customer. Once he realized the error, Sass said, he immediately issued Stevens a refund.
"I corrected that mistake," Sass said.
Gross violation
What they're saying:
Dr. Jeffrey Younggren calls that a "gross violation" of the standard of practice.
"A comprehensive mental health evaluation is not an easy task," said Younggren, a professor of clinical psychology at the University of New Mexico and author of a published standard for doing ESA assessments.
According to the Younggren model, approving an ESA should involve a thorough assessment of both the individual and the animal, including direct observation of how the animal helps.
By contrast, Touch ESA's entire assessment is based on an online questionnaire.
"How often have you felt down, depressed, or hopeless?" said Adrienne, a FOX6 producer we asked to apply for a Touch ESA letter.
"In the past seven days I felt like a failure," Adrienne mumbled to herself as she scanned the questions on a computer screen inside the FOX6 newsroom.
"My stress level is interfering with my communication with my loved ones, friends or coworkers," Adrienne continued.
The whole thing took about 15 minutes to complete.
"And that's it," Adrienne said.
The next day, Adrienne got a letter, too.
In fact, it was virtually identical to the letter sent to Chaz Stevens, save for her name, her dog's name, and a few vague phrases about her mental health need.
It appears to be a form letter. A fill-in-the-blank mental health Mad-Lib. Hers was also signed by Dr. Lauri Gebhard.
"She's one of our, one of, one of our clinicians," Sass said. "Yes, we have a few."
Dr. Gebhard declined our request for an on-camera interview, but in a written statement she said Adrienne's online evaluation met diagnostic criteria that satisfies the state requirement for an ESA letter. If it hadn't, she writes, there would have been a follow-up consultation.
'Professional nonsense'
Expert Analysis:
"The certification of a complex disability based upon a questionnaire is professional nonsense," Younggren said.
The American Psychiatric Association writes that it is "unethical and illegal" to write unwarranted ESA letters. APA warns in a 2022 guidance document that a proper disability determination should not only be rigorous, but it should also include an assessment of malingering.
"Do you know what malingering is?" asked FOX6 Investigator Bryan Polcyn.
"Continue," Sass replied.
"Lying," Polcyn said.
That is something Marquette Psychology Professor Stephen Saunders said must be done face to face.
"You can't really determine anything from a questionnaire," Saunders said.
We showed Dr. Saunders the full list of more than 80 questions posed by Touch ESA.
"I feel unhappy. I find myself lonely," Dr. Saunders said, as he read out loud.
"You could give this to a fourth grader and tell them to answer these so that you come across as distraught, really easy," Saunders said.
"How do you know [Adrienne's] not lying?" Polcyn asked Sass. "She wants a letter."
"You know, that's a great question, Bryan, it really is," Sass replied. "But it's self-reporting."
99% approval
What we know:
Touch ESA practically guarantees you'll be approved.
"Your website says 99% or more, will get a letter," Polcyn said.
"For the most part, right, absolutely, absolutely," Sass replied.
At least, it did until after this interview, when the 99% approval claim vanished.
"As long as you pay your $50, anybody can have a letter," Polcyn said.
"That's not our integrity," Sass said. "That's not what we believe in."
Stevens admits he intended to "trap" Sass. But he said it was so easy, he never even had to fill out a questionnaire.
"I intentionally laid a trap for Chris Sass," Stevens said. "He not only fell on it, but he handed me the grenade and pulled the pin for me."
What is a professional relationship?
What they're saying:
In 2020, HUD changed its guidance to say ESA letter writers should at least have a "professional relationship" with the client. That led to this exchange in our interview with Sass:
Polcyn: "Does Dr. Gebhard have a relationship with our producer?"
Sass: "Well, just define what a relationship is."
Polcyn: "Have they ever met? Have they ever talked?"
Sass: I don't know if that defines a relationship."
Polcyn: "How would you define it?"
Sass: "An interaction. You know, it can be nonverbal. It can be verbal. It could be the form letter."
Some Wisconsin lawmakers now want to require that relationship be established for at least 30 days.
"If that's what the regulations state that we have to do, then that's, of course, what we're going to do," Sass said.
Speaking of relationships
Dig deeper:
But when it comes to relationships, there's something else Chris Sass is not telling you about Dr. Lauri Gebhard.
"What is your relationship?" asked Polcyn.
"It's a relationship that we developed a while ago," Sass replied. "She is a doctor."
Our investigation finds Touch ESA's office address is the same as Dr. Gebhard's Mind-Body Program.
Same building. Same suite. A one-room office in Elm Grove.
"Does the relationship go any further than that?" asked Polcyn.
"I don't know what that means," Sass said.
The truth is, they share more than office space.
"Is there a romantic involvement? Does she live with you?" Polcyn asked.
"We.. (laughs), yeah, we're together as a couple," Sass said.
They share a home address, too.
"I do not think it's unethical at all," Sass said.
It's a place where they can provide each other with emotional support. No letter required.
Motivated by ‘retribution’
The other side:
In her statement to FOX6 News, Dr. Gebhard writes that she's only written 5 letters for touch ESA out of 20 such letters to originate in Wisconsin. She said there is another clinician contracted to do business with TouchESA in Wisconsin, but neither Dr. Gebhard nor Sass would tell us the name of the second clinician.
Gebhard described Chaz Stevens as a former competitor "motivated by retribution."
Investigation and legislation
What's next:
Meanwhile, Stevens has filed a complaint against Dr. Gebhard with the Wisconsin Psychology Examining Board. After screening Stevens' complaint, the board decided to open an investigation. It has been assigned case number 25 PSY 0032.
As for the state legislation aimed at regulating service animals and ESAs in Wisconsin, the State Senate passed the bill on November 18th on a voice vote. The bill had already passed the Assembly in the same form, so it has been officially "concurred in" and will next go to Governor Evers. FOX6 Investigators have asked Governor Evers if he intends to sign the bill, but as of Friday, November 21, at 5pm, we have not received a response.
The Source: For this story, FOX6 Investigators relied on interviews with Chris Sass, Chaz Stevens, Jeffrey Younggren and Stephen Saunders, as well as documents provided to FOX6 by Stevens and documents obtained by FOX6 through an application for an ESA letter from Touch ESA. We also used records from the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions to determine the primary office addresses for Touch ESA and Dr. Gebhard's Mind-Body Program. Finally, we reviewed guidance documents from HUD, the American Psychiatric Association, and a model ESA assessment published by Dr. Younggren.