VA says no service dogs warranted for war stress sufferers
By Christine Stapleton
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
The Department of Veterans Affairs will pay service-dog benefits to veterans with vision, hearing or mobility-related injuries but not to veterans suffering only with post-traumatic-stress-disorder and other mental health disabilities.
A 67-page, final draft of rules concerning veterans in need of service dogs was published today in the Federal Register and will become final in 30 days. In justifying its decision, the VA cited “nationally established” and “widely accepted” training protocols for sight, hearing and mobility-assistance dogs and the lack of similar training protocols for mental health service dogs.
In addition, because there is little clinical research on mental health service dogs, the “VA has not yet been able to determine that these dogs provide medical benefit to veterans with mental illness.”
“Until such determination can be made, VA cannot justify providing benefits for mental health service dogs,” according to a pre-released copy of the rules obtained by The Palm Beach Post on Tuesday.
Veterans with service dogs were baffled by the rule.
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