Paws For Purple Hearts Essay
We see heros everyday without even realizing it. Those heros may not look like they are hurting and some look like they should be on their deathbed. According to the U.S. national library of medicine there are 31% of Vietnam Veterans, 10% of Gulf War (Desert Storm) Veterans, 11% of Afghanistan Veterans, and 20% of the Iraq War Veterans that have PTSD. PTSD is a post-traumatic stress disorder and from having it, usually results to; substance abuse, depression, and other anxiety disorders. There have also been thousands that die and millions that get injured on the frontlines. Just in the Iraq and Afghanistan war there were 6,845 soldiers that died and 900,000 that got injured. There are so many organizations out there that help out veterans in need. Paws for Purple Hearts is a really good one and it is the first program of its kind that offers therapeutic interventions for veterans and active military personnel by teaching those
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with PTSD to train service dogs for their comrades with combat-related injuries. According to Paws for Purple Hearts, PPH is built around the trusted and time honored tradition of Veterans helping Veterans.
The dogs that, Paws for Purple hearts uses, are a mix breed between golden and labrador retrievers.
Service members engage with these specially bred, highly intelligent, low arousal puppies. In an 18-24 month service dog regimen the dog induces more than 90 commands while the veteran reestablishes into civilian life. When the training is finally complete, the service dog will then be placed with veterans with mobility-limiting injuries. Training begins about 3 weeks of age by staff and volunteers, helping to prepare these young dogs to become loving and loyal companions. These service dogs will then live the rest of their lives with and by their new owner. In order to fully train a service dog to be placed with a wounded warrior costs PPH 25,000$. As the dogs mature they will go through the final training step and evaluations. Some of the dogs will be placed with a veteran that has combat related injury while others will go on for “career changes” as therapy dogs, facility dogs to be used as demonstration, or be released to a loving
family.
Since the commencement of Paws for Purple Hearts, service dogs have directly impacted hundreds of veterans’ lives. For the men and women that sadly do suffer from PTS, the process of training the results in therapeutic benefits such as; less anxiety and depression, improved sleep, greater sociability and a more positive outcome in life, a decrease in emotional numbness, improved parenting skills and family dynamics, increased patience, impulse control, and emotional regulation, decrease dependence towards pain medications, decrease startle responses, and lastly a mission-driven focus and a renewed sense of purpose.
with PTSD to train service dogs for their comrades with combat-related injuries. According to Paws for Purple Hearts, PPH is built around the trusted and time honored tradition of Veterans helping Veterans.
The dogs that, Paws for Purple hearts uses, are a mix breed between golden and labrador retrievers.
Service members engage with these specially bred, highly intelligent, low arousal puppies. In an 18-24 month service dog regimen the dog induces more than 90 commands while the veteran reestablishes into civilian life. When the training is finally complete, the service dog will then be placed with veterans with mobility-limiting injuries. Training begins about 3 weeks of age by staff and volunteers, helping to prepare these young dogs to become loving and loyal companions. These service dogs will then live the rest of their lives with and by their new owner. In order to fully train a service dog to be placed with a wounded warrior costs PPH 25,000$. As the dogs mature they will go through the final training step and evaluations. Some of the dogs will be placed with a veteran that has combat related injury while others will go on for “career changes” as therapy dogs, facility dogs to be used as demonstration, or be released to a loving
family.
Since the commencement of Paws for Purple Hearts, service dogs have directly impacted hundreds of veterans’ lives. For the men and women that sadly do suffer from PTS, the process of training the results in therapeutic benefits such as; less anxiety and depression, improved sleep, greater sociability and a more positive outcome in life, a decrease in emotional numbness, improved parenting skills and family dynamics, increased patience, impulse control, and emotional regulation, decrease dependence towards pain medications, decrease startle responses, and lastly a mission-driven focus and a renewed sense of purpose.