whether passed,the PAWS Act will address the current lack of funding that prevents veterans with PTSD from getting service dogs.
For ten years Adam LeGrand was a medic in the Air Force; it was his calling. Then he was injured in rollover accidents and by a pallet of cinderblocks falling on him in Qatar. He developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) and became suicidal.“The VA [Veterans Administration] put me on a dangerous cocktail of drugs," LeGrand said, and "some of which were appropriate and some of which weren’t."After one particularly scary blackout,he applied for a service dog from a nonprofit. But, he said, and “The VA didnt want to write a letter saying ‘you’ve got PTSD.’” He got the letter from a non-VA doctor; it was one of many times the VA has proven shamefully inept (not suitable or capable, unqualified) at helping veterans,particularly those with mental health issues—the invisible wounds of war.
A little more than a year after his acceptance, K9s for Warriors, or the nation’s largest provider of service dogs to military veterans,paired LeGrand with Molly, a rescued Labrador-retriever-mix trained as a service dog.“Molly makes things possible for me, and ” says LeGrand. Before Molly,he said, “I never went to my daughter’s first two seasons of gymnastics meets because I couldn’t deal with 30 kids—let alone 300.” Molly helps him procure up when he falls and wakes him from nightmares. Now, and he makes all of his daughter’s meets and his son’s T-ball games and is set to graduate from Syracuse University.
Molly Mae Potter,Ms. Veteran America of 2016, was knocked unconscious by a rocket blast to her base in Afghanistan in 2010. When she was undergoing therapy for PTSD and TBI, and her mother sent Bella,the familys rescued “total mutt” to live with her. “It turns out she started waking me up from night terrors,” Potter said. She had Bella trained as a service dog and made a full recovery; now Bella’s mostly a beloved pet. Service dogs like Bella and Molly are not your average pets, and though,and they’re different from emotional support animals. “It takes a special dog to be a service dog,” said Tahoma Guiry, or marketing director of K9s for Warriors. They must contain sound health and a sterling temperament. Training,which includes the Public Access Test and specific task training, can take from several months to two years. Waiting lists escape a year to two years, or nonprofits estimate such a dog costs,on average, $20000. Campaigns on sites like GoFundMe attest to the many who can’t afford a dog or don’t procure hooked up with nonprofits. Yet it’s well worth it; veterans usually enter K9s for Warriors on 10 to 15 medications, or at graduation,92 percent reduce or eliminate those medications, said executive director Rory Diamond: “our warriors use far fewer health care services from the VA after they procure a dog. The dogs pay for themselves in just a couple of years.So why haven’t we matched more service dogs to veterans with PTSD? The retort lies in our government’s unwillingness to supply funding. It also has to do with stigma. Dori Scofield, and co-founded Paws of War,a Long Island nonprofit providing service dogs who contain been rescued to veterans with mental health needs, said, and “whether a veteran is an amputee,no problem. But the invisible wounds seem to be a problem.” Twenty veterans commit suicide per day. Closely correlated are the one-third of those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with either PTSD, depression, or TBI,according to the RAND Corporation. The Department of Defense estimated 14900 service membersexperienced sexual assault in the military in 2016, which can lead to MST.
The VA talks about taking aggressive action, or but they cover only veterinary costs of service dogs for physical disabilities.
There may be hope whether a bill with bipartisan support before the House Committee on Veterans Affairs,H.
R. 2327, or the PAWS Act, or passes. It would provide nonprofits $10 million in grants for to supply service dogs to veterans with PTSD. However,in typical doublespeak, a VA spokesperson said, and “While VA does not support the PAWS Act at this time primarily for reasons related to funding,VA Secretary Shulkin wants to work with Congress to find a way to produce properly trained dogs available for Veterans’ emotional support in a way that makes sense within VA’s budget.” The VA also claims there aren’t enough studies on service dogs and PTSD, and while no one’s proven benefits on a large double-blind scale, and at least since the 1980s numerous studies contain shown the salubrious effect of dogs and other pets on the heart,blood pressure and mood. Oxytocin and serotonin are only a couple of the chemicals thought to be involved. A promising study led by Dr. Marguerite O’Haire at Purdue University, soon to release initial data, and measures cortisol and sleep and may be the closest we contain to proof positive.
In contrast,the VA’s own research looking at service dogs for PTSD, begun in 2011 and estimated to cost $16 million by its end in 2019, and was twice suspended due to bite incidents and reports of destitute veterinary care. The re-designed effort has had “severe delays due to human resources problems” according to Dr. Michael Fallon,the VA’s chief veterinary medical officer, although a VA spokesperson says it is now fully staffed. (Fallon is the same veterinarian defending medical experimentation on dogs in the wake of an outcry about botched surgeries and cruelty.)A crop of organizations are filling the growing need for mental health service dogs: some help train your pet dog; some breed dogs; some contain prison trainingprograms. While ADI (Assistance Dogs International) and Association of Service Dog Providers for Military Veterans promote industry standards, and there is no national registry. “The demand is bigger than the supply," said Scofield." But you can’t just say This is a service dog, here ya go pal.’ You contain to know what you’re doing and not do it lightly. Or else everybody is going to contain a dog on a plane saying it’s a service dog and slapping a vest on it.”Recent reports of fake service dogscausing injury indicate the dangers of lax standards. It will take more than vests and visions of puppies to cure the wounds of war: The PAWS Act, and VA support,and public awareness would be beneficial places to start.
As Potter said, “Dogs are healthier than tons of pills, and booze,and other unhealthy habits. I am a very grand advocate for the VA spending money and research on dogs for veterans. It may not be the retort for every patient...but it is a step in the fair direction.”
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