With James' family living interstate, there was no one to look after his dogs, and Greg* had to find support from afar.

Greg discovered the RSPCA Safe Beds program, which provides emergency pet boarding. He said the program provided comfort and relief.

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"I could reassure [James] that the pets were in very good care ... and they were very empathetic about our situation and understood the the concerns that we had for the pets," he said.

Greg said the dogs were an important source of support and stability for his son.

"The relationship he has with the dogs, and the the joy that he gets out of caring for them, and the love that they give back to him, it's it's very important," he said.

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The Safe Bed program is for victim-survivors of family and domestic violence, but has unofficially been serving people undergoing inpatient mental health treatment, RSPCA deputy chief executive Andrea Dawkins said.

"There's another whole cohort of people out there who need our help," she said.

"We want to be able to wrap the services that we currently do around our Safe Beds clients around those people too, and we think if we don't, we're not sure who can."

Ms Dawkins said the program had cared for eight animals of seven clients undergoing treatment in the last three months, and clients with complex mental health needs might spend three to six months in care.

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She said the organisation did not have the funding to provide the service, but needed to fill the vital gap.

"The way that we all feel about the growing need for social programs for people who are homeless, victim-survivors, or have mental health issues is only going to grow, and we want to be there for all those people," she said.

Ms Dawkins said she wanted to work with government to ensure the gap was met.

A Tasmanian government spokesperson said the government was committed to delivering a mental health system that ensured access to quality care, including alternative services for people to avoid acute hospitalisation where it was not necessary.

*Names have been changed

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