Okay.
Bill Webb, thank you so much for what you just said. I was in the same battle for 10 years. We need to talk, buddy, okay? We need to talk about that.
My name is Marc Lapointe. I am a Canadian Armed Forces veteran with 25 years of service and experience as both a non-commissioned and commissioned officer with the infantry, the Airborne Regiment and special forces. While serving Canada on multiple overseas deployments, I, like many other brothers and sisters in arms, suffered cumulative post-traumatic stress disorder. That led me to medically retiring from the forces in 2014.
Here with me today is Carl and his service dog India. Carl is from the board of directors of the Meliora Service Dogs organization and is here to assist me with answering any questions you may have from the perspective of a member. Not only is Carl a fellow veteran; he and India are also graduates of the program curriculum. He has begun the process to be a service dog trainer and mentor in our peer support network.
Since 2013 I have dedicated myself, personally and financially, to helping others regain hope and healing through training medical service dogs and their partners. I personally have fostered and trained more than 75 dogs and 150 medical service dog teams. I was a director for two service dog training organizations in three different countries. In 2016 I was awarded the Minister of Veterans Affairs Commendation while working with veterans and their medical service dogs. In 2017 I was approached to assist with a psychological service dog medical study completed by the University of Saskatchewan and the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction. I am one of the consultants for the university. Since the co-founding of Meliora in 2020, more than 25 veterans and retired first responders have completed the Meliora program. Some have been able to return to work, school and other self-fulfilling activities.
On the first question, about the efficacy and use of psychiatric service dogs by Canadian Armed Forces veterans, I have first-hand experience of knowing how a medical service dog helps to relieve the symptoms of PTSD. With my own personal service dog, called Bosley, and as the director of standards and training at Meliora, I meet almost every day with disabled people whose lives have been improved and sometimes saved by the partnership of medical service dogs.
Medical service dogs are meant to complement traditional medical and psychological care for a disabled person. They're not an answer to all. Not only are the dogs known to have naturally calming effects on PTSD sufferers; each medical service dog is also specifically trained for their partner's needs. Many of Meliora's trained medical service dogs have been trained to interrupt unhealthy and unwanted behaviour symptoms in their partners. They wake up their teammate from night terrors, provide comforting pressure—weight—on their partner during a crisis, assist during recovery from fear paralysis or a dissociative state, and prevent or interrupt emotional overload.
Our medical service dogs are also trained to assist their partners with other medical conditions, such as to detect and assist members in the event of a seizure, an allergic reaction, high or low blood pressure and diabetic emergencies. As our members age, the dogs are trained to retrieve objects because of mobility issues, help with balance, and carry items or medical necessities. Members with hearing impairments have medical service dogs to alert them to alarms, doorbells and people needing their attention.
Throughout my time in training medical service dogs for veterans and first responders, I've both felt and seen the incredible improvements in PTSD symptoms gained only through the medical service dog partnership. All of our medical service dog teams benefit from increased physical activity, better emotional connection to others, improved sleep, happier family relationships, reduced anxiety, a significant decrease in depression and suicidal thoughts, and a reduction in medication.
The ultimate success of a psychological medical service dog partnership is measured when that person no longer needs a service dog to navigate during their daily living activities. That's our goal. In fact, most graduates of our training program will only have one service dog, because they've already regained their independence when their dog naturally retires.
To answer question (b), the resources required by the Department of Veterans Affairs to implement access to psychiatric service dogs are the recognition of psychiatric medical service dogs within VAC and across Canada; a national registry of responsible and ethical medical service dog program providers that identifies certified dogs, users, handlers, trainers and training organizations; a common standard for training and certification of medical service dog teams across Canada; a national registry of responsible and ethical dog breeders who have been proven to breed healthy dogs with a calm temperament and appropriately long working lives; funding for the breeding, training and care of psychiatric medical service dogs for injured veterans; and training for VAC case managers about psychiatric and mobility medical service dogs for veterans, and the application process, because the case managers don't have any clue about what's going on.
Meliora is a national medical service dog training organization with members in practically every province. All of our members have stories of confrontation after our members and their fully certified medical service dogs were prevented from entering public places and buildings because their dogs were not recognized as a service animal. Provincially, Alberta, British Columbia and Nova Scotia require specific testing before they will recognize our members' medical service dogs, which, in truth and reality, is a Canine Good Citizen test. Quebec hardly ever recognizes any medical service dog unless they are used for the visually impaired.