Join Voice of Warriors on the second Tuesday of each month at 7:00 pm EST as we partner with Give an Hour during our VOW Talk Radio show.
Dr. Rolando J. Díaz, a Give an Hour provider, and clinical psychologist with an independent practice in Arlington, Virginia, will be joining our show each month to speak about Give an Hour’s mission and tell us how to access services, as well as the scope of problems which can be covered since Give an Hour serves both the service member and his immediate family which includes parents, spouses, siblings, and children.
Dr. Díaz works with veterans dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and other adjustment disorders that come up after returning from combat. He works with children, adolescents, and adults, and works frequently with families and couples. Our VOW Talk Radio team is excited that Dr. Díaz is offering his expertise as we tackle different topics each month. We plan to discuss family issues, couples’ issues, how children are affected by deployment, post traumatic stress, employment, and more.
We are asking you to send us your questions and comments and let us know what you want to discuss. You can send your questions to radio@voiceofwarriors.com prior to the show. You can also ask questions in our chatroom during the live show as well as call into the studio and ask your question directly to Dr. Díaz himself.
To find out more about Dr. Díaz’s background and experience, you can visit his website at www.rolandojdiazphd.com.
Give an Hour is a nonprofit organization providing free mental health services to US military personnel and families affected by the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Give an Hour has developed a national network of volunteers capable of responding to both acute and chronic conditions that arise within our society. Give an Hour asks mental health professionals to literally donate an hour of their time each week to provide free mental health services to military personnel and their families. To find out more, visit giveanhour.org
About Beth Pennington
I hope you realize that a Companion, Therapy, and Emotional Support Animals are not Service Dogs. All of these kinds of pets aren’t lolawed public access under the ADA and the Rehab Act (Veterans).. We’re having a problem nationwide that Veterans are having their doctors signing them off a dog to help w/ their PTSD, etc.. In fact if the dog dosen’t have 2 yrs of extensive training then its not a Service Dog. My Service Dog has been attacked a couple times w/ so call ESA, Companion Dogs at the VA Hospital.. All of them stated that its their companion who makes me feel good.I hope that this VA Hospital understands that none of these dogs will be lolawed public access We have to stop these free companions for Vets before it gets out of hand.This is the newest from the ADA Mar 15,2011How “Service Animal” Is DefinedService animals are defined as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. Examples of such work or tasks include guiding people who are blind, alerting people who are deaf, pulling a wheelchair, alerting and protecting a person who is having a seizure, reminding a person with mental illness to take prescribed medications, calming a person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during an anxiety attack, or performing other duties. Service animals are working animals, not pets. The work or task a dog has been trained to provide must be directly related to the person’s disability. Dogs whose sole function is to provide comfort or emotional support do not qualify as service animals under the ADA.This definition does not affect or limit the broader definition of “assistance animal” under the Fair Housing Act or the broader definition of “service animal” under the Air Carrier Access Act.Some State and local laws also define service animal more broadly than the ADA does. Information about such laws can be obtained from the State attorney general’s office.
You stated, In fact if the dog dosen’t have 2 yrs of ineexstve training then its not a Service Dog. This statement is incorrect. The ADA does not require specific training nor does it mandate a minimum amount of time required for training. All the dog, or other animal, has to do is perform tasks that are relevant to the disability of the person requiring the animal and PTSD is a disability, that does require training but that training can be performed by the owner of the dog or a professional and it doesn’t matter how long it took to train the dog, the only certification I recommend is to go through the AKC canine good citizen course and get the dog certified as a canine good citizen. Again not required but recommended. Also I would like to point out that any state law regarding service animals is over ruled by the Federal Americans with Disabilities Act. So if the ADA doesn’t require something the state can’t either. Further you do not have to provide documentation nor can any one demand documentation that a dog is a service dog. Be warned though that if you misrepresent a dog as a service dog and the dog is not you can be held criminally liable and be criminally charged.