ARLINGTON, Va. — A new veterans’ advocacy group is calling on the Department of Veterans Affairs to fund ‘thank you for your service’ dogs for veterans with social adjustment difficulties, sources confirmed today.
People for the Ethical Treatment of America's Slighted Service-members is on a mission to help veterans who have had trouble adjusting to civilian life, according to its website. The proposed program, which pairs specially trained 'thank you for your service' dogs with troubled veterans, has shown promise as an experimental treatment for select patients.
“I saw how some veterans — in college classrooms, bars, workplaces, and everywhere else — couldn't have a single conversation without directing the discussion back to how they served in Iraq, or how things worked in the Marines or Army," said Christian Barksdale, the program's founder. "Without fail, the civilians around them would always become tired of the same old topic, and eventually would avoid or ignore that veteran, deepening their social isolation.”
