Paws and Stripes is a local nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide training to shelter dogs and match them with veterans living with trauma. After 14 years, its executive director and founder Lindsey Kay is leaving. KUNM spoke with Kay, who says having a dog and building community can provide invaluable help to people who often struggle with their mental health and are even at elevated risk of suicide
LINDSEY KAY: I started this organization without any prior experience working with serving veterans, I was a family member. So it was more just relevant to my personal experience and wanting to help a loved one of my own. And my background was actually, I was working in veterinary clinics and doing Animal Rescue, things like that.
So getting into this was really just a matter of trying to be responsive to the needs of someone that I cared about. And in doing so I just realized very quickly that it was not a unique situation, there were a lot of other folks that were looking for this sort of a thing to help out.
KUNM: You just mentioned how it's a common experience for our service people to come home and face challenges with maybe adjusting back to everyday life and dealing with their mental health. But how did you come to decide that you wanted to bridge the gap between helping veterans and shelter dogs?
KAY: So initially, the idea was just to help veterans to be able to receive a service dog because I had realized how difficult it was to get a service dog, if you were someone who had what you know, we refer to, as you know, the invisible disabilities, if you will, PTSD, brain injuries, things like that. And so that was really what we did. The very beginning was just focusing on training shelter dogs, for folks to help them out. But what we came to learn is that there were a whole lot of other things going on, that they needed help with that were not necessarily things that a dog can address. And so initially, we incorporated doing like clinical assessments, so working with counselors to help us sort of evaluate the needs of clients and what we needed to focus on for training with the dog. But that quickly evolved into just fully bringing mental health onboard and integrating that into the program so that they're getting different kinds of leveled support.
I actually would want to point out that I think that it's a habit of Americans to really put the veteran identity into a box when the reality is that our client base is just as diverse as any population and all sorts of citizens sign up to serve and they bring their own lived experiences that predate their service into a landscape that tends to also be wildly traumatic. And it can be traumatic through institutional trauma and betrayal whenever you have served, and then you feel like you've just sort of been kicked to the curb. But I think that understanding that they have a unifying identity, right, that they served, but they are also unique. And we really prioritize that and how we address care as an organization.
KUNM: You started Paws and Stripes as a small startup, and it has grown into an international leader in this field. What does that mean to you, especially as we were just talking about bringing awareness to the veteran experience, and making sure that services are provided where there are gaps for veterans.
KAY: We're one of two service dog organizations in the state that are internationally accredited to train service animals. Service animals are a very specific type of assistance animal to help someone with a disability. It's different from a therapy dog or a military working dog. There are a lot of different kinds of designations out there. And our organization specialized in training dogs that help one handler with their disability. And also our program trains through a different method it’s called an owner co-training model. So, it's not the traditional dogs trained and then given to somebody that has a disability. We train the handler and the dog together as a team, it's a part of a different model of care that we provide. So, in addition to that, just in terms of mental health, there is already a deficit statewide for behavioral health services for anyone, but there is just such a need for our veterans and their loved ones to have access to these services, waitlists at the VA are so long.
KUNM: You've been doing this work for the past 14 years, and you've just recently announced that you will be leaving Paws and Stripes early this summer. Do you have any future plans that you would like to share?
KAY: So I'm working on that. I'm excited about starting sort of a new frontier. I will finish my master's in social work this May. Social work is really just such an important area of work to me. It's quite reflective of what I've been doing for a very long time and what's, you know, the ethics and values of social work are in alignment with what's important to me also. So that's really going to drive my next steps and my continued commitment to my community.
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, call or text the suicide and crisis lifeline at 988. You can then press 1 to connect to the Veteran Crisis Line.
This coverage is made possible by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and KUNM listeners.
