Service Dogs for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Are you in need of a service dog?

It is well known that people with physical disabilities benefit from service dogs, but emotional support dogs have yet to be scientifically proven to help those with post-traumatic stress disorder. Service dogs are trained to carry out specific tasks like guiding people with vision difficulties across the street, or picking up dropped items. Emotional support dogs provide companionship for those with mental health conditions. They are pets and not trained to do the tasks that service dogs are trained to do.

After previous studies were suspended, due to inadequately trained dogs, this past April the Human Animal Bond Research Initiative (HABRI) granted funds to Purdue University to measure the outcomes of utilizing service dogs for post 9/11 war veterans suffering from PTSD. Researchers will be working with K9’s for Warriors, a non-profit that follows a “Gold Standard” when training rescue animals to be service dogs. The study will assess for changes in stress level, medication, and relationships among veterans.

Though some private organizations provide service-dog training for individuals with mental health conditions such as PTSD, the Veterans Administration currently does not; they offer information on how to contact places that provide service animals. But they do offer veterinarian services. If the Purdue research proves that service dogs can help those with PTSD, the VA will also provide veterinarian care to those dogs.

The study will take several years to complete, but, who knows, maybe it will lead to more studies, ones involving service dogs for those with PTSD in the civilian community. Though such dogs are not to be relied on as a panacea for PTSD, if they are recognized as a legitimate adjunct to traditional treatments, thousands of people may benefit. In the United States alone, more than 24 million people are estimated to have PTSD at any given time.

Are you among the 24 million?