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.
This is another shameful example of why veterans continue to be denied the services they so justly deserve. If the Dept of Veterans Affairs cares at all about the soldiers who have committed suicide and to the families and friends that have been left behind, the Dept should repeal this ruling immediately. If the Dept wants to cite the lack of credible ‘training protocols’, they should get off their asses and develop some. It’s not rocket science that pairing service dogs with vets is beneficial for ALL types of disabilities.