Weekly Insights: Dogs for Life
According to Indian River Indicators, 11.9% of adults in Indian River County are veterans, compared to 8.6% of all adults in Florida. As many as 30% of veterans suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Dogs for Life is devoted to improving the quality of life for individuals and Veterans through training service dogs for hearing, mobility and the effects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders. Through the Veteran Dog Training Program, Dogs for Life provides trained and certified service dogs to Veterans with hearing and mobility challenges, as well as the effects of PTSD.
Hearing dogs assisted with a door knock, a ringing telephone, a smoke alarm, and an alarm clock, or other sounds a person with a hearing impairment may be missing. Mobility Assistance Dogs are task trained to assist with such issues as rising from a chair, picking up a phone, and retrieving a fallen object tasks that can be impossible to a person with a physical challenge. PTSD tasks can include waking from a nightmare, creating a “safe zone” in a crowd, turning lights on in a dark room, creating a distraction or finding an exit to leave a stressful situation, calling for help on a special K-9 emergency phone, providing deep pressure for calming effect and reducing hyper-vigilance through task work.
Weekly Insights works in conjunction with Indian River Indicators. Indian River Indicators was launched in June 2021 and originated after the completion of the 2019 Indian River Community Needs Assessment. It provides key data and information about our community that is updated annually and can be used to support and sustain proven programs. It can also be used by community leaders to develop policy, promote promising practices and inspire innovation that can lead to solutions to persistent community challenges. Indian River Community Foundation holds monthly informational sessions to introduce the community to this new resource. The next session will be held on Tuesday, February 1st at 4pm via zoom. Please email Foundation Coordinator, Chiaka Nwosu, at chiaka@ircommunityfoundation.org to attend a session.
To learn more visit www.ircommunityfoundation.org and click “Indian River Indicators” or contact a member of the Community Foundation’s team at 772.492.1407.