Help a Veteran travel to receive a service dog

Hi, My name is Michelle Haugen and I am raising funds to help with travel expenses for my husband, Tate.

I have helped my husband for more than 10 years with his journey with PTSD. We have spent the last 5 years looking for ways to better help him than what I could alone. We have spent hundreds of hours looking for a facility that trained service dogs for Veterans.

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 get worse or remain for months or years.

Until now, the federal dog referral program – which relies on non-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 order to participate. Those with PTSD but without a physical disability, are on their own in qualifying and arranging for a service dog.

For the last ten years the VA has essentially told us that they don't recognize service dogs as helping a veteran with post traumatic stress. PTSD service dogs are often confused with emotional support dogs.

The latter provide companionship and are not trained in a specific task to support a disability. PTSD service dogs, by contrast, cost about $25,000 to adopt and train a dog to understand dozens of general commands to assist veterans with PTSD and then to further train it for the needs of the particular veteran.

We were blessed to find a facility in Minnesota that placed Tate on a waitlist/short list to receive a service dog which had a training date in October, but has changed to end of July for now. He is still on the list for training to be sooner

We are requesting assistance with travel to the facility, hotels and meals.

Tate has had many surgeries with the latest being done in Minneapolis with follow ups needing to be completed. The pre op visits, hotels, meals, post op visits with traveling has been at our cost.

We are asking for help with the similar costs for traveling to training.

Please help with any amount that you can.