How To Get A Service Dog From The Va

Danyelle Clark-Gutierrez and her service dog, Lisa, shop for food at a grocery store. Clark-Gutierrez got the yellowish Labrador retriever to help her cope with mail service-traumatic stress disorder after she experienced military sexual trauma while serving in the Air Force. Stephanie O'Neill for KHN hide explanation

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Stephanie O'Neill for KHN

Danyelle Clark-Gutierrez and her service domestic dog, Lisa, shop for food at a grocery store. Clark-Gutierrez got the yellow Labrador retriever to aid her cope with post-traumatic stress disorder after she experienced military sexual trauma while serving in the Air Force.

Stephanie O'Neill for KHN

It's supper time in the Whittier, California, dwelling of Air Strength Veteran Danyelle Clark-Gutierrez. Eagerly awaiting a basin of kibble and canned dog food is Lisa, a 3-year-old, xanthous Labrador Retriever.

Lisa almost dances with excitement, her nails clicking on the kitchen floor. In this moment, she appears more like an exuberant puppy than an expensive, highly-trained service animal. Simply that'south exactly what Lisa is, and she now helps Clark-Gutierrez manage her post-traumatic stress symptoms in the day-to-day.

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"Having her at present, information technology's like I can go anywhere," Clark-Gutierrez says. "And yes, if somebody did come up at me, I'd have warning; I could run."

A growing trunk of research into PTSD and service animals paved the manner for President Joe Biden to sign into law the Puppies Assisting Wounded Servicemembers (PAWS) for Veterans Therapy Act. The legislation, enacted in August, requires the Section of Veterans Affairs to open its service dog referral programme to veterans with PTSD, and to launch a five-year pilot program in which veterans with PTSD help railroad train service dogs for other veterans.

Clark-Gutierrez, 33, is amongst the 1 in 4 female vets who've reported experiencing military sexual trauma (MST) while serving in the U.Southward. Military.

MST, combat violence and brain injuries are among the experiences that put service personnel at greater risk for developing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. The symptoms include flashbacks to the traumatic event, severe anxiety, nightmares and hypervigilance. Psychologists note that such symptoms are actually a normal reaction to experiencing or witnessing such violence. A diagnosis of PTSD happens when the symptoms go worse or remain for months or years.

A search for help leads to Lisa

That'southward what happened to Clark-Gutierrez later ongoing sexual harassment past a swain airman escalated to a physical attack about a decade ago. The lawyer and mother of three says she e'er needed her husband by her side in order to feel safe leaving home. The Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) prescribed her a cascade of medications after diagnosing her with PTSD. At i signal, Clark-Gutierrez says, she was prescribed more than a dozen pills a day.

"I had medication and then I had medication for the two or 3 side effects for each medication," she says. "And every fourth dimension they gave me a new med, they had to requite me iii more. I just couldn't do it anymore, I was merely getting so tired, so we started looking at other therapies."

And that's how she got her service dog, Lisa. Her hubby, too an Air Force veteran, institute the not-profit grouping, K9s for Warriors, which rescues dogs - many from kill shelters - and turns them into service animals for veterans with PTSD. Lisa is i of about 700 dogs the group has paired with veterans dealing with on-going symptoms caused by traumatic experiences in the past.

"At present with Lisa we take cycle rides, we go down to the park; we go to Domicile Depot," says Clark-Gutierrez. "I go grocery shopping – normal-people things that I become to do that I didn't get to practise before Lisa."

Research testify service dogs relieve PTSD symptoms

That comes as no surprise to Maggie O'Haire, an acquaintance professor of Human-Animate being Interaction at Purdue Academy. Her ongoing enquiry suggests while service dogs aren't necessarily a cure for PTSD, they do ease its symptoms. Her published studies include one showing veterans partnered with these dogs feel less anger and anxiety and get better slumber than those without. Another 1 suggests service dogs ameliorate cortisol levels in traumatized veterans.

"We actually saw patterns of that stress hormone that were more than similar to healthy adults who don't have post-traumatic stress disorder," O'Haire says.

A congressionally-mandated VA written report, published earlier this yr on the affect of service dogs on veterans with PTSD suggests those who partnered with these animals have less suicidal ideation and more symptom improvement than those without them.

Until at present, the federal dog referral program – which relies on not-profit service dog organizations to pay for these dogs and to provide them to veterans for free – required that the veteran have a physical mobility issue, such as a lost limb, paralysis or blindness, in society to participate. Those with PTSD but without a physical disability, such as Clark-Gutierrez, were on their own in qualifying and arranging for a service dog.

Training for PTSD service dogs costs about $25,000

The new effort created by the federal police will be offered at five VA medical centers nationwide, in partnership with accredited service canis familiaris training organizations - to give veterans with PTSD the chance to train mental health service dogs for beau veterans. Information technology's modeled on an existing program at the Palo Alto, Calif. VA.

"This bill is really about therapeutic on-the-chore training, or 'training the trainer,'" says Adam Webb, spokesman for Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who introduced the legislation. "We don't anticipate VA will start prescribing PTSD service dogs, but the data we generate from this pilot programme will likely be useful in making that case in the future."

The Congressional Budget Office expects the federal airplane pilot program will cost the VA about $19 million. The law stops short of requiring the VA to pay for the dogs. Instead, the agency will partner with accredited service dog organizations which use private money to embrace the cost of adoption, training and pairing the dogs with veterans.

Nonetheless, the law marks a welcomed changeabout in VA policy, says K9s For Warriors CEO Rory Diamond.

"For the last ten years the VA has essentially told the states that they don't recognize service dogs as helping a veteran with post traumatic stress," Diamond says.

For vets with PTSD, a service canis familiaris is like a 'boxing buddy' for life

PTSD service dogs are oft dislocated with emotional back up dogs, Diamond says. The latter provide companionship and are non trained in a specific task to back up a disability. PTSD service dogs, by contrast, cost about $25,000 to adopt and railroad train a dog to sympathise dozens of general commands to assist veterans with PTSD and then to farther train information technology for the needs of the item veteran, he says.

"Then 'cover' for instance," Diamond says, "The dog will sit adjacent to the warrior, expect behind them and alert them if someone comes upwards from behind. Or 'block' so they'll stand perpendicular and give them some infinite from whatever's in forepart of them."

Regular army Master Sergeant David Crenshaw, of Kearny, New Jersey says his service canis familiaris, Medico, a German curt-haired arrow and Labrador mix, has changed his life.

"We teach in the war machine to accept a battle buddy. Your battle buddy is that person you lot can telephone call on whatever time of the day or night to become yous out of every sticky state of affairs," Crenshaw says. "And these service animals act as a boxing buddy."

Just how much that's true became evident to Crenshaw a few months ago. Because of persistent hypervigilance that's part of his gainsay-caused PTSD, Crenshaw always avoided large gatherings. But this summer, Medico helped him successfully navigate big crowds at Disney Globe – a significant first for Crenshaw, who has three daughters.

"I was not agitated. I was not broken-hearted. I was non upset," Crenshaw, 39, says. "It was truly, truly amazing and so much and so that I didn't even have to even terminate to think about information technology in the moment. It just happened naturally."

PTSD rates vary amidst veterans of dissimilar wars

Crenshaw says because of Doc, he no longer takes any of his PTSD medications and he no longer uses alcohol to cocky-medicate. Clark-Gutierrez says Lisa, as well, has helped her to quit using alcohol she long-relied upon and to stop taking VA-prescribed medications for panic attacks, nightmares and periods of disassociation.

"Lisa checks on me all the time," Clark-Gutierrez says. "If she sees that I'm just kind of out of information technology, she'll (exercise) whatever she has to do to bring me back. I can't even put into words how helpful that is."

"We actually save the VA money over time," Diamond says. "Our warriors are far less likely to be on expensive prescription drugs, are far less likely to use other VA services and far more likely to get to school or become to work. So it's a win, win, win across the board."

The number of veterans with PTSD varies by war with upwards to 20 percent of those who fought in Afghanistan and Iraq having the condition in any given year, according to the U.South. Department of Veterans Affairs.

This story was produced as part of NPR's health reporting partnership with KHN (Kaiser Health News), a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues.