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Evidence is growing that service dogs can help veterans with PTSD readjust to civilian life. That's why a group of lawmakers in Congress wants to put millions of dollars toward organizations that pair vets with pets. They hope to reduce alarming rates of suicide among veterans. NPR congressional reporter Barbara Sprunt reports, and a warning - you'll hear a veteran talk about suicide.
BARBARA SPRUNT, BYLINE: Daniel Bean is the CEO of K9s For Warriors, a program that trains and pairs service dogs with veterans with post-traumatic stress. He spoke alongside lawmakers pushing for more resources for organizations like his.
DANIEL BEAN: There are hundreds of thousands of veterans that we can't reach because the service dog industry does not have enough funds.
SPRUNT: Texas Congressman Morgan Luttrell has a bill that would designate $10 million a year for five years to the Department of Veterans Affairs, which would then award grants to nonprofits who work to provide service dogs to eligible veterans.
MORGAN LUTTRELL: Far too many of our veterans find themselves isolated, struggling to reintegrate into civilian life. And tragically, 20-plus veterans each day take their lives.
SPRUNT: Jorel Wester says he was almost part of that statistic. He spent over a decade in the Coast Guard, doing search and rescue.
JOREL WESTER: I responded to Katrina, and we were putting bodies in bags daily. And all the stuff that kind of you put away - like, I'll deal with it later - well, later kind of creeps up on you, and I started having problems with sleeping and pain, and the more I thought, the more that suicide came to the forefront.
SPRUNT: One day, he says he went to get what he thought would be his last meal.
WESTER: I was sitting in my car in the parking lot, and I had, like, this pistol in my lap. And I went to grab a drink of the cup, and on the side of the cup, it had this advertisement for K9s For Warriors. I'm like, well, I'm going to give them a call. And if somebody answers, I'm going to tell them what's happening.
SPRUNT: Someone did answer and convinced him to go to counseling and said they'd get him into their program to get a service dog. Over a year later, he was paired with Betsy, a black lab who he says drastically changed his life.
WESTER: About a year is when the VA started to say, hey, look, we're going to take you off your anxiety medications. You don't need them anymore. Your service dog seems to have filled that need, which is just amazing.
SPRUNT: Maggie O'Haire of the University of Arizona led an NIH-funded study aimed at putting data behind powerful stories like Wester's. Researchers compared two groups of veterans with PTSD - ones they placed with service dogs and ones who were still on the waiting list.
MAGGIE O'HAIRE: The tasks that they do are things like interrupting anxiety or a panic attack, interrupting a nightmare, helping the person stay present in the face of flashbacks.
SPRUNT: She said there were dramatic results in just three months.
O'HAIRE: Service dogs were associated with 66% lower odds of a clinician PTSD diagnosis. We also saw lower PTSD severity, anxiety, depression, less social isolation and higher quality of life.
SPRUNT: O'Haire says veterans often have to wait years to get a service dog.
O'HAIRE: They're in a dark place, and when they find out a service dog is an option, they do feel hope. And then they find out that it's going to be two years.
SPRUNT: Lawmakers say this proposed legislation would help tackle the problem of long wait times, if groups have more funds to train more dogs. But wait times are also a thing on Capitol Hill, and even with bipartisan support, advocates worry it's a long road ahead.
Barbara Sprunt, NPR News, the Capitol.
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