Cari Greb is a Home Tele Mental Health Care Coordinator in James A. Haley Hospital's Virtual Care department. Ms. Greb monitors clinical information she receives daily from Veterans using telehealth communications. This is a story of a Vietnam Veteran with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) on Ms. Greb's panel of patients.
This Veteran rarely left his home and kept vigilant throughout the night to ensure his safety resulting in poor sleep and extreme anxiety. Although he has a housemate as a link to outside needs, they interacted minimally. Ms. Greb worked with the Veteran to find ways to lessen his anxiety, decrease his isolation, and improve his sleep. However, the Veteran continued to have difficulty moving toward his goals.
During an interaction with the Veteran, Ms. Greb discovered that the Veteran had a long-standing request in for a service dog for his PTSD. However, the prospect of obtaining a dog was poor because service dogs are trained primarily for Veterans with physical disabilities or blindness rather than for emotional support to alleviate PTSD symptoms. With the Veteran's permission, Ms. Greb contacted the service dog company several times to advocate for him. Within a short period of time, the company identified a Shepherd that the company found difficult to place because of a minor physical problem and offered this dog to the Veteran. The Veteran accepted their offer.
With Ms. Greb's ongoing support and encouragement, the Veteran turned his focus toward providing the Shepherd with good nutrition, medication, and love. The Veteran learned that petting the Shepherd calmed him during anxiety attacks. The Veteran was motivated to venture out of his house to buy food and toys for the Shepherd, which decreased his isolation. The Veteran would put the dog between himself and others feeling more protected. Over time, the Veteran reported better sleep, less anxiety, and left the house more because as he affectionately told everyone about the Shepherd, "she has my back."
But the story does not end here.
At night, the Shepherd sleeps in the hall between the Veteran's room and his housemate's room. One night, the Shepherd started barking frantically and awakened the Veteran. He checked on his housemate, found him unconscious, and called 911. The housemate, also a Veteran and a diabetic, was taken to the hospital for stabilization of his blood glucose.
Ms. Greb assessed her patient's needs, individualized his treatment, went above and beyond to help the Veteran by contacting the service dog company to advocate for the Veteran. Having done this, Ms. Greb not only impacted the Veteran under her care but subsequently affected, maybe even saved the life of another Veteran. By the way, the Shepherd has been nominated for Service Dog of the Year!