Help Courtney Get a Service Dog

I have C-PTSD and panic disorder and have been accessing mental healthcare to attempt to learn how to alleviate and manage my symptoms for the past four and a half years. This process has led me to a place where I feel like getting a service dog is the best next step in my healing.

 

Because of my diagnosis, I have difficulty feeling safe out in the world and even in my own body. This causes a lot of anxiety and at worst, panic attacks. Over the last several years this has greatly limited my independence and quality of life. I will often opt to stay in my home rather than go out into the world by myself and risk having a panic attack or fainting without built-in support.

 

Learn more about C-PTSD here: https://online.nursing.georgetown.edu/blog/women-trauma-ptsd/

 

Learn more about how trauma disproportionately affects trans and non-binary folks here: https://traumapsychnews.com/2020/11/working-with-trauma-in-trans-and-non-binary-tnb-communities-brief-review-of-a-burgeoning-literature-base/

 

I work in a high-stress role as a policy advocate in Alabama for reproductive and gender equity issues. Two years ago, I was experiencing a lot of stress at work so I took a weekend trip and went out for a hike in an attempt to ground myself and feel a little better. After my hike, I went to a restaurant for lunch where I had a kind of panic attack I had never had before which presented as fainting. I was by myself in a room full of people and no one came to my aid. I was able to make it outside to lay on the cold sidewalk until I felt well enough to sit up, and eat and drink. I had a 1.5 hour drive home and I wasn’t sure what had just happened with my body and was so scared, so I went to an urgent care where they told me I had had a panic attack and there was nothing medically they could do for me.

 

With letters from my therapist and psychiatrist, I have been accepted into The Roverchase Foundation’s service dog program where I will be receiving a dog in the Fall of 2022. I am so excited and hopeful that having a service dog join my life will improve my quality of life and independence. Mine will be trained to maintain physical contact with me when we are out in public to keep me grounded, to alert me if I am getting elevated before I recognize it for myself and then help me ground, and if in a worst-case scenario I find myself out and alone in the world and in need of medical care, I’m hoping the presence of a service dog will increase the chance that bystanders will help me.

 

Having a service dog will help me feel safer and more confident to run errands, go to the grocery store, as well as travel for work and to see friends & family. I am also excited that having a dog will increase my ability to do things that contribute to my joy and healing like going out in nature to hike, camp, and swim without having to be so afraid about what might happen if hyper-vigilance and anxiety overcome me.

 

While The Roverchase Foundation is training my dog to best meet my service needs, I need to raise $15,000 to pay for half of that training.

 

There are many ways to help me meet this goal:

Even if you are not in a place to be able to give right now, please share this page into your social networks;

Donate via gofundme (not tax-deductible), venmo (not tax-deductible), cashapp (not tax-deductible), or check/cash mailed directly to The Roverchase Foundation (tax-deductible);

My venmo & cashapp are: @/$ courtneylroark

Make checks out to ‘The Roverchase Foundation’ with ‘Courtney Roark’ in the memo line and mail to:
The Roverchase Foundation 
130 Inverness Plaza #342
Birmingham, AL 35242

Mail cash with a note saying this donation is for ‘Courtney Roark’s service dog’ to:

The Roverchase Foundation

130 Inverness Plaza #342

Birmingham, AL 35242

If you are local to Alabama, I will be organizing fundraising events throughout the summer;

 

To learn more about The Roverchase Foundation, check out their

 

I will be receiving a dog from the E or F litter < 3