Training to be a better Not- For- Profit

M.E.N.D.4 MALE SURVIVORS OF MILITARY SEXUAL TRAUMA, Founder Wayne Edward May and Vice Chairman of our Board Steven Krietzberg are in New York City at The Foundation Center taken classes to help make our Not-For-Profit the best to serve our Veterans. Thanks to Wayne and Steven for this hard work.
Danielle Martin Volunteer Executive Director Art With A Heart NJ "The Art Program Of M.E.N.D. 4 MALE SURVIVORS OF MST

Help Us End Military Sexual Trauma Now.

The Military's Secret Shame - Newsweek

The Military's Secret Shame - Newsweek

Veterans Information Seminar

Time	Tuesday, March 29 · 7:00pm - 8:30pm
Location	Knights of Columbus, Council 1672 70 East Main Street Freehold, NJ   RSVP's are appreciated but not necessary. Please RSVP by calling 732-616-8855 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              732-616-8855      end_of_the_skype_highlighting or emailing vegand@verizon.net. Free informational seminar for Veterans and their families. keynote speaker will be Amy Mallet Light refreshments will be served and handouts will be provided. Topics to be covered include: *Medical, mental health and social services offered by the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs, N.J. Dept. Military & Veterans Affairs and Monmouth County Veterans Services. *Non-profit and for-profit organizations that may assist veterans to get the services they need, when ineligible for certain programs. Please park in the side lot, or in the overflow parking lots located at Amboy Bank or the Elk’s Club across the street from the Knights of Columbus.    http://tinyurl.com/VETERANSINFO

Psychiatric service dogs

Psychiatric service dogs

Psychiatric service dogs

A psychiatric service dog is a specific type of service dog trained to assist their handler with a psychiatric disability, such as post-traumatic stress disorder or schizophrenia.
Although assistance dogs have traditionally helped with people with disabilities such as blindness or more recently deafness or mobility disabilities, there are a wide range of other disabilities that an assistance dog may be able to help with as well, including psychiatric disabilities.

Training

Like all assistance dogs, a psychiatric service dog is individually trained to do work or perform tasks that mitigate their handler's disability. Training to mitigate a psychiatric disability may include providing environmental assessment (in such cases as paranoia or hallucinations), signalling behaviors (such as interrupting repetitive or injurious behaviors), reminding the handler to take medication, retrieving objects, guiding the handler from stressful situations, or acting as a brace if the handler becomes dizzy.
Psychiatric service dogs may be of any breed or size suitable for public work. Some psychiatric service dogs are trained by the person who will become the handler- usually with the help of a professional trainer. Others are trained by assistance or service dog programs. Assistance dog organizations are increasingly recognizing the need for dogs to help individuals with psychiatric disabilities.

Accessibility

In the United States, the Americans with Disabilities Act defines a disability as "a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of such individual," and therefore allows handlers of psychiatric service dogs the same rights and protections afforded to those with other types of service animals. Service dogs, including psychiatric service dogs, are allowed to accompany their handler in any location that is normally accessible to the public whether or not health codes or business policy normally would allow a dog to enter, provided the dog behaves properly and does not interfere with normal operations (e.g. barking, biting, defecating, or obstructing other people) or pose a direct threat to the safety of others.

Source

Description above from the Wikipedia article Psychiatric service dogs, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors here. Community Pages are not affiliated with, or endorsed by, anyone associated with the topic.

Tsongas presses Defense Secretary Gates on Sexual Assault in the Military 02/16/11

Gates calls Tsongas suggestion “reasonable” and promises to consider legal access for victims and examine why victim conversations with advocates, attorneys are not privileged

WASHINGTON, DC – February 16, 2011 – The House Armed Services Committee today held a hearing to examine the Pentagon’s budget request for the coming fiscal year which featured testimony from Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen.  Fifth District Congresswoman Niki Tsongas, a member of the Committee who is leading efforts to prevent sexual assault in the military and better protect servicemembers who have been victims of sexual assault, pressed Secretary Gates on the issue of sexual assault in the military and the Pentagon’s attempts to address it.
Tsongas asked the Secretary why the Department of Defense does not grant privileged communication between victims of sexual assault and their advocates or attorney’s saying, “In 2010, there were 3,230 reported sexual assaults in the military.  But by the Pentagon’s own estimate, as few as 10 percent of sexual assaults are reported.  The VA estimates that 1 in 3 women veterans report experiencing some form of military sexual trauma.  The FY 2011 National Defense Authorization Act required that the Department look into the feasibility of providing a military lawyer to all victims of sexual assault.  While this is a good first step, I was disappointed that provisions contained which guarantees all victims the right to legal counsel and protects the confidentiality of conversations between victims and Victim Advocates, were not included in the final version of the FY 2011 NDAA.  We would be shocked if conversations between a client and their attorney or advocate were not privileged in the civilian world, and similar rights must be afforded to servicemembers who may be the victim of a crime.  Why would the Department resist such a common-sense measures?”
Secretary Gates responded by saying, “I hadn’t realized that the Department had resisted it and I must say, these things sound to me like reasonable actions, so I will take out of this hearing the charge to look into, if we opposed it, why we opposed it, and why we shouldn’t go forward on our own without legislative action.”
This statement by Secretary Gates represents a potential major breakthrough in the effort to provide victims of sexual assault in the military with better representation and support.  Last year, the House approved bipartisan legislation, authored by Congresswoman Tsongas and Congressman Michael Turner (R-OH) which would have granted victims of sexual assault the right to legal counsel as well as the right to keep conversations between the victim and Victim Advocates privileged.  Tsongas and Turner will be reintroducing their bill entitled the Defense Sexual Trauma Oversight and Good Governance Act (Defense STRONG Act) in the coming weeks.