Every day, Senior Chief Brad greets sailors and marines as they enter a military clinic for their regular doctor’s appointments. Throughout the day, he makes his rounds and visits patients sitting in the waiting area, cuddling with them briefly. If he senses they are down, he takes action.
But he’s no medical professional. He’s a golden retriever yellow lab mix initially trained as a seeing-eye dog, a post-traumatic stress disorder therapy dog and, now, a stress dog.
As suicides across the military have steadily increased since 2013, according to the Department of Defense (DOD), a naval clinic on Joint Base Andrews in Maryland has found a secret weapon to sniff out military members dealing with extreme stress – a dog.
When Senior Chief Brad senses someone is down, he instantly alerts his handler, Chief Bobby Long. Long, a nurse practitioner, counsels the patient to figure out if they need professional help.
“People that need a little extra attention or are maybe showing signs of irritability, stress, depression, whatever it could be; he will really focus in on that person and then he wants my attention,” Long said. “Some of the science behind that shows that dogs can pick up on pheromones that people emit when they are highly stressed and some science points to body language, cues that people leave.“– READ MORE
[give_form id=”79809″] [divider][/divider]President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday designed to assist veterans in gaining access to mental health services.
Titled “Supporting Our Veterans During Their Transition From Uniformed Service to Civilian Life,” the executive order is the 57th the president has signed since taking office, according to Mediaite.
The order requires the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Defense and Homeland Security to create a plan to provide “seamless access to mental health treatment and suicide prevention resources for transitioning uniformed service members in the year following discharge, separation, or retirement.”
These departments must also give updates on how to implement their plan, as well as present any new reforms needed to make mental health services more accessible to veterans.
“We want them to get the highest care and the care they so richly deserve,” Trump stated during the signing, referring to America’s veterans. – READ MORE
[divider][/divider]This U.S. Marine is taking on a new mission of his own for the holidays, planning to hike about 22 miles a day over two weeks to raise awareness about the high amount of suicides among military veterans.
Cpl. Stephens of Canton, Georgia plans to start his trek at Camp Lejune in North Carolina and hopes to make the 220-mile journey to Virginia Beach in just ten days, according to Fox 5 Atlanta. He is also the founder of the Georgia chapter of End 22, an organization named after the number of service members that take their own lives each day. End 22 sets out to raise awareness and provide assistance to military service members who are struggling.
“I’m doing 22 miles a day for 10 days, that’s 220, but I can throw in a little extra to make 222 miles in ten days,” said Stephens.
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