TREA: The Enlisted Association Blog

Photo Above:  TREA's 1st Vice President Deb Oelschig and Director of Operations Debbie Osborne (left), SemperK9's Chris Baity, Eliza Jamison, and Amanda Baity (Center), and TREA's Director of Legislative Affairs Bill McCabe (right)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
07.30.2021
Contact: Bill McCabe 
legislativeinfo@trea.org 
1.800.554.8732

TREA Attends Service Dog for Veterans Conference

ORLANDO, FL: Last week, members of The Enlisted Association were proud to attend the Association of Service Dog Providers for Military Veterans' (ASDPMV) Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida. ASDPMV is a coalition of non-profit service dog providers for veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injury and military sexual trauma working to prevent suicide and improve veterans’ mental health. Their goal is to ensure that best practices are utilized by qualified organizations to ensure that veterans are paired with the most beneficial service dogs, increase awareness and understanding of the medical evidence that supports the use of service dogs, and advocate for the expanded use of qualified service dogs.

TREA was proud to partner with several organizations in attendance, specifically SemperK9 Assistance Dogs located in Quantico, Virginia, to help better the lives of veterans in need.

The conference was held in the midst of TREA's advocacy efforts on Capitol Hill for H.R. 1448 and S. 613, The PAWS For Veterans Therapy Act, which would require the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to implement a five-year pilot program where veterans train service dogs for veterans with disabilities. The bill also authorizes the VA to provide service dogs to veterans with mental illnesses such as PTSD, regardless of whether they have a mobility impairment. The bill's come on the heels of a recent VA study that showed warriors paired with a service dog had a 34.5% decrease in PCL-5 (PTSD Symptoms) from baseline to study completion.

For a copy of the bill text, click HERE

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