After two tours in Iraq and close calls during mortar attacks that left Nicholas Bailey with PTSD, a spinal injury and severe pain, only one thing helped the Army veteran: support from his German Shepherd, Abel.
His wife, Vanessa, tells DaShawn Brown of WCSC, “In the middle of the night when Nick is having a nightmare, he wakes Nick up by licking his hand.”
“It’s like he could feel the pain coming from Nick,” says Vanessa.
Because of this intense bond, the Baileys, of North Charleston, S.C., decided they wanted to train Abel as a service animal instead of applying to receive a new dog trained to help with PTSD. They started training Abel on their own, but once, when they were shopping, a box fell from a shelf and hit Abel, startling him and leaving him hesitant to enter stores — the exact places where Nicholas relied on him to calm his PTSD symptoms.
As a result, the Baileys investigated how to get Abel professional training in Arizona at a facility that can teach the German Shepherd to overcome his fear and complete his service dog lessons.
The only problem? The training (plus kenneling, medications, and food) costs $15,000. (A more affordable training program that the Baileys originally looked into didn’t work out.)
The Baileys set up a GoFundMe account explaining Nick’s condition and that going out in public can be a “nightmare” without the help of Abel.
All of this led to an 8-year-old girl the Baileys had never met, Rachel Mennett, learning of their plight and asking a pet shop in Summerville, S.C. if she could set up a lemonade stand to raise money for Abel’s training.
“I wanted to help him because my brother knew he needed help, and I wanted to do lemonade so I thought I could help him do it,” she tells Brown. The donations flowed in, many people giving money without even accepting a cup of lemonade.
“For me, it’s just amazing that an 8-year-old girl would show any interest in me or my dog,” Nicholas says.
As for that GoFundMe account? After the story about Rachel’s lemonade stand aired, many more people chipped in, and now the Baileys are just a couple of thousands of dollars shy of their goal.
MORE: After Losing Her Marine Son to PTSD, This Mom’s Mission is to Save the Lives of Other Veterans
Tag: PTSD
For Veterans Suffering from PTSD, Relief is Found Deep Under Water
For U.S. soldiers, returning home from deployment can be a lonely event. That’s especially true for those suffering from PTSD; these veterans often isolate themselves from others, seeking the quiet and calm that they haven’t experienced since before their service.
Marine veteran Timothy Maynard of Greenville, N.C., has found a way to achieve that peace without isolation and now he’s sharing his secret with others.
After serving his country for eight years, Maynard struggled. “It was pretty bad,” he tells Josh Birch of WNCT. “I did a little bit of time with the rehabilitation clinic trying to get back to where I could kind of function with normal people and on my own.”
Then Maynard tried scuba diving through Scuba Now, and enjoyed it so much, he became an instructor. “Underwater it’s just kind of quiet, it’s slow, I don’t have to worry about distractions from other people, other noise,” Maynard tells Birch. “It’s just me and my breath. I’m just doing my own thing. So it lets me slow my mind down so that I can relax and I don’t have to stress.”
Maynard began to invite other vets to try scuba diving as therapy, and he must be a pretty convincing pitchman because over the past year, the Scuba Now shops in Greenville and Wilmington, N.C. have trained 400 veterans, bringing the total number of service members receiving instruction to over 2,500 in the past six years.
Scuba Now offers scuba certification, which normally costs hundreds of dollars, free of charge to any veteran who has earned the Purple Heart medal.
Maynard thinks scuba’s benefits have gone beyond just a fun hobby for him. “I attribute it to saving my life cause it kind of gave me meaning, gave me something to do again and now I just love it,” he says.
MORE: Meet the Marine-Turned-Doctor Helping Veterans Overcome PTSD
The Camp That Offers Battlefield Warriors a New Way to Heal
As we’ve said before, for most veterans, jumping back into life at home is no easy task. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and distance from their former comrades-in-arms can hinder the transition back to day-to-day life. But Warrior Camp is looking to change that by adding a twist to the typical PTSD treatment.
This one-week program runs a few times throughout the year, providing support and treatment for military members and veterans who are living with PTSD. New York resident Eva J. Usadi founded the camp.
Most PTSD treatment centers focus on talk therapy and medication, sometimes putting a veteran on as many as 18 or 20 different drugs. Despite this, the statistics do not reveal positive results. Every day, one active military member commits suicide, but it is far worse among veterans, which average 22 suicides per day.
That’s why Usadi uses a different approach. Her strategy focuses on three main components: equine assisted psychotherapy, yoga and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy. The results are staggering: 68 percent of those coming to the camp with PTSD no longer meet those requirements at the end of the week.
For Jennifer Pacanowski, Warrior Camp provided her with an alternative way to confront her PTSD: Through writing poetry.
“The thing is you can’t talk your nervous system out of being traumatized,” says Pacanowski. “To support your veterans you have to listen to them. You have to listen to their stories. That’s the ritual of coming home.”
Usadi and her veteran alumni, though, credit a fourth component, community, for the camp’s success.
“They train together. They live together and they go to war together in very tightly knit units and some of the people have said we have created that feeling again that nobody has had since they had been discharged,” Usadi told Union Leader.
And it’s that community feeling that continues to drive the camp forward.
On July 19, a gala was held in support of Warrior Camp at Shattuck Golf Club in Jaffrey, New Hampshire. The event was planned and hosted by Thomas C. Harvey, a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Army. Retired Sgt. First Class Harvey decided to have the event to raise awareness about PTSD after being asked to volunteer at Warrior Camp last year.
For his efforts, Harvey was named honorary alum of the camp. But he isn’t done yet as he plans to make the gala a yearly occurrence, especially considering that the event raised $10,000.
While PTSD remains a troubling occurrence, Warrior Camp is proving that no problem is too big too tackle if you have the support and help of community and friends.
DON’T MISS: This Veteran is Building Better Futures for Other Service Members
Meet The Soldiers Turned Roadies Coming to a Stadium Near You
Back in April, we told you about how KISS and Def Leppard planned to offer some veterans the summer job of a lifetime: Working as roadies for the bands’ summer tour. Now meet the winners of the contest, who will play instrumental roles behind the scenes.
Kayla Kelly was a radio operator in the Marines serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now she’s joined the KISS army as their VIP coordinator, which means that she assists with autograph requests and more. Kelly knew she wanted to join the Marines when she was in seventh grade and her father, a New York City firefighter, was injured during the September 11 attacks. After her service, she struggled to find employment. “It was difficult just getting up and going to find a job let alone the job field not being big enough for everybody,” Kelly told Vanessa Herrera and R. Stickney of NBC San Diego.
Bill Jones will be assisting the Def Leppard stage manager. He’s a former Army helicopter pilot and has suffered from PTSD since his service in Iraq and Afghanistan. He told Angel Canales of ABC News, “The crew works together like a well-oiled machine, and my old unit worked was like a well-oiled machine. There are a lot of similarities in relying on one other to get their job done and being able to rely on that camaraderie. It’s a brotherhood in the military and it’s a brotherhood here.”
Rick Allen, the drummer of Def Leppard, has a personal reason for supporting this cause — he suffered PTSD after losing an arm in a car accident. He told ABC, “I think what we’re doing is setting an example. Just because you’ve been in a situation like Bill’s been in, or anybody that’s been to war, there should be no stigma attached to PTSD.”
This is the second summer the members of KISS have hired a veteran to work on their tour. Frontman Paul Stanley said, “It’s an honor to have anyone who served work with us. I feel like I’m in the presence of a hero. These are the people who make it possible for me to do what I do. They are owed not only a hero’s welcome, but they are owed whatever they need to work their way back into society.”
The bands will donate two dollars from every ticket to organizations that help vets such as the Wounded Warrior Project and Hiring Our Heroes.
Sounds like a great reason to rock out this summer.
MORE: These Rocking Bands Are Offering Veterans A Dream Job
This Service Dog Has a Mission Beyond Helping Just One Vet
For the past several years, we’ve heard a lot about veterans suffering from PTSD after returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan. And we’ve heard the stories about the various (sometimes interesting) methods to help them — from biofeedback to gardening to nudity. But one approach that’s helping thousands of soldiers is a basic one: Pairing them with man’s best friend.
Jake Fish of Port Angeles, Washington, was medically discharged from the Marine Corps in 1997. But in recent years, he continued to struggle with PTSD. Coming to his rescue was the service dog Megan, a two-year-old golden retriever, who was trained by the local nonprofit New Leash on Life.
New Leash on Life trains dogs and puppies left at the Clallam Humane Society to become service animals — ultimately providing them to veterans and people with disabilities.
Fish told the Peninsula Daily News, “The biggest thing about having Megan is that I’m not lonely. She gives me a feeling of companionship. I also know for a fact that she lowers my stress levels. She puts me in a good mood when I don’t want to be in one.”
As soon as Fish was paired with Megan, he began bringing her to the Northwest Veterans Resource Center, where he volunteers to help other vets access their benefits from the VA. Megan decided to volunteer for duty, too.
“Vets will come into the office, and we’ll start going over the paperwork, which means talking about all the vets’ pain and issues they have. It can get kind of tense,” Fish said. “Megan will get up from behind my desk and go to the person, and they just relax. She’s so happy and soft, they forget what they’re talking about that happened to them when they’re petting her. She lessens their anxiety of talking about stuff.”
“I feel like helping others as a service officer is a continuation of my duty,” Fish said. Megan clearly has figured out that helping more than just her veteran owner is a continuation of her duty, too.
MORE: This Organization Knows How to Simultaneously Save Veterans and Dogs
A Retreat for Veterans in Need of Peace and Camaraderie
Getting away from it all really can have a monumental impact on your spirit and mental health. And that’s certainly something that many U.S. veterans need.
So it’s no surprise that Steve Bukowski (who served as a Navy SEAL for 34 years) had a dream of opening a retreat center for veterans in need of help transitioning back to civilian life. Sadly, Steve died in 2010 without fulfilling his goal, but now, his wife Lynnette is working to make it a reality.
“Over the years he [Steve] realized, after 9/11 and after we went to the war, that the need was greater to bring the men home and have them have a place to decompress,” Bukowski told Catarina Andreano of ABC News. “The pressure under which they work is so extreme.”
Lynnette aims to open Landing Zone Grace Veterans Retreat in her home town of Virginia Beach, Virginia, within the next six months. She’s poured her own money into the nonprofit and started a GoFundMe account that has so far raised more than $15,000 toward her $75,000 goal. Bukowski notes on the website that she needs to raise that much within two weeks to be able to close on a 35-acre property and house for the retreat.
Bukowski plans to offer equine therapy, yoga, kennels for service animals, kayaking, and other treatments and activities. The nonprofit will first welcome returning Special Ops veterans before expanding to include members of all military branches and their spouses.
Why give Special Ops veterans first dibs? Lynnette wants to give them priority because their security clearance restricts how much they can talk about their experiences. She hopes at shared mealtimes they’ll feel free to open up with each other. “A huge problem among Special Ops is the high divorce rate, and it’s just not necessary,” she said.
Bukowski said that this type of retreat would have been tremendously helpful for her husband. “Steve practiced mediation when he came home from missions and deployment…He always needed a little time to isolate himself.”
Bukowski continues her fundraising campaign for Landing Zone Grace through June 20. Even a small donation could make a big difference to returning veterans.
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Splish Splash: This Aquatics Program Eases Veterans’ Transition Home
Fifty years ago, Dr. Jane Katz was a pioneering member of the U.S. synchronized swimming performance team in the 1964 Olympics, helping to promote the aquatic competition involving nose clips, coordinated moves, and big smiles that eventually became an official Olympic sport in Los Angeles in 1984.
Now Dr. Katz is using her years of experience in the water to rehabilitate veterans.
Katz, who teaches at John Jay College in New York City, developed her own swimming rehabilitation program after she suffered injuries in a 1979 car accident, eventually publishing many books and videos that teach her methods to others. For years, she also has been teaching swimming to NYC policemen and firefighters through her college’s Department of Physical Education and Athletics. And most recently, she decided to expand her WET (water exercise technique) classes to specifically appeal to veterans.
“I have found that many of the vets, regardless of age, have joint pain and as a result they stopped working out…Water is always great for healing,” she told Swimming World. Which is why in WETs for Vets, Dr. Katz engages veterans in exercises designed to help their physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
“I don’t think the public has enough of an appreciation for what these vets go through when they return to civilian life,” she said. “It’s a very difficult adjustment, mostly from a psychological standpoint as many suffer from various degrees of post traumatic stress. The WETs for Vets program helps them in several ways. The workouts help relieve stress, and there’s a real camaraderie among the students because they share a common bond that those of us who have not been in combat cannot really understand. ”
Marine Corps veteran Marc MacNaughton told Swimming World that Dr. Katz’s class has been invaluable to him. “As I and others can attest getting in the pool makes coming home from war easier for our military service members, veterans, and their families…The unique program that Dr. Katz has designed has given us increased confidence, family and social connections, and to some, learning how to live with a new physical adaption. It has improved mental health for some of our veterans, and a few have shared with me even recovery from addiction. ”
FINA, the international governing body for swimming and aquatic events, recently presented Dr. Katz with a certificate of merit, which the deserving recipient can add to her many other rewards.
MORE: Can This Recreational Activity Heal Vets and Help Them Find Jobs?
While Her Owner Serves Overseas, This Dog Serves Her Country at Home
To say that the Cook family has a deep responsibility for national service is an understatement.
Alan Cook is an Air Force veteran. His daughter Danielle Cook is currently a Staff Sergeant in the Air Force. Danielle’s mother and grandfather served too. And the line of service in this family doesn’t stop there — now that Danielle is deployed overseas in Afghanistan, her dog Harper helps veterans suffering PTSD through a program called Circle of Change.
Harper lives with Danielle’s dad and visits the Dog Den, a doggy daycare center in Madison while Sergeant Cook is gone. Workers at the Dog Den thought Harper would be a good candidate for the Circle of Change program. “She is very shy and fearful, but at the same time she is gentle. She’s the perfect dog for our veterans program,” Dog Den employee Deborah Crawley told Gordon Severson of WAOW.
In Circle of Change classes, veterans suffering from PTSD teach dogs who have behavioral problems how to relax and follow commands. This training helps the dogs overcome their fears. Another beneficial outcome? The veterans find their PTSD symptoms are often eased by working with the animals, too.
Desert Storm veteran Mike Weber, a participant in the first six-week Circle of Change course, said working with the dogs helped him feel better. “My way of handling my problem was just to avoid everything. This has really helped me come back out and kind of get me back on track,” Weber told Severson. “It’s such a great program and it really has helped me bond with not only the animals, but other vets and volunteers.”
“We’re a military family all the way down to the dog now,” Alan Cook told Severson. “My daughter is just so proud of Harper and thinks it’s a great thing. It gives her something to do while my daughter is away overseas.”
MORE: This Organization Knows How To Simultaneously Save Veterans and Dogs
This Non-Profit is Making Sure Kids of Fallen Heroes Can Go to College
Funding a college education can be a difficult proposition for anyone, but for children of parents who died while serving in the military, it can be downright daunting. According to the Jacksonville, Florida-based nonprofit Children of Fallen Patriots, 15,000 American children have lost a military parent over the past 25 years. Now, the foundation is on a mission to identify as many of them as possible and offer them help paying their college bills. So far they’ve found 5,218 of these students, and paid $7.5 million toward their college educations.
“Our focus is on military children who have lost a parent in line of duty or any related deaths, like PTSD suicide or illnesses from exposure launch,” Army veteran David Kim, the founder of Children of Fallen Patriots, told Helena Hovritz of Forbes. “When government benefits don’t come through, we step in and pay for what they need.”
Hovritz writes that before Daniel Richard Healy’s final deployment, he told his son Jacob Centeno Healy that what he most wanted was for him to go to college. When Senior Chief Petty Officer Healy died, Jacob didn’t know how he could pay for college. “The VA wouldn’t provide benefits to me because they didn’t recognize me as my dads’ son,” Healy told Forbes.
So Fallen Patriots stepped in and funded Jacob Healy’s education. Now he works as a program administer for the organization, helping other people who’ve lost parents in the military find all the scholarships and government aid available to them, and covering the rest of the costs with funds from the nonprofit.
On this Memorial Day, Children of Fallen Patriots reminds us that we owe our fallen heroes so much. They gave our country their parents: the least we can do is provide them with a college education.
MORE: Providing Assistance to “The Forgotten Heroes of America” is Top Priority for This Veteran
The Future of PTSD Treatment: A Phone App
Making the first move can be hardest part of recovery. And while hotlines exist for veterans suffering from PTSD, they depend on the afflicted actually being able to pick up the phone and take action.
“I was concerned about how other people would interact with me,” says one man interviewed for a Veterans Affairs project on getting help for post-traumatic stress disorder.
But what if help came to them, unobtrusively, as part of their daily routine, with no judgment, and asking just a few check-in questions?
That’s the idea behind a new app, “Battle Buddy,” which is being developed by Dryhootch, a veterans’ outreach and support organization, along with Marquette University and the Medical College of Wisconsin. The program takes its name from an Army practice of assigning soldiers “buddies” to keep tabs on each other (a program that has saved countless lives). The “Battle Buddy” app has collected $850,000 in grants so far.
“There are times when you’re suffering with mental health issues and you don’t want to deal with people, but you may be willing to do it openly and freely through a device,” Jada Reynolds, a Dryhootch case manager, told WISN.
How will the app work? It will check in with veterans daily, asking a series of basic questions to see how they’re doing, and whether they need help. A mentor will monitor a soldier’s answers, keeping an eye out for issues.
“It took me eight years to be able to ask for help,” Heather Antoniewicz, who served aboard the USS Carl Vinson, told WISN.
The developers hope to launch the app this fall, meaning that help is on the horizon for veterans in desperate need of it.