Paws and Stripes

Founder Lindsey Kay started P&S in Rio Rancho in 2010 when a family member returned home after sustaining injuries in Iraq. They spent eight months at a military hospital and while assisting them, Lindsey saw firsthand the impacts of trauma. Today, P&S has 14 years of experience providing a community-driven service-focused environment. They have raised more than $12 million for NM Veterans with disabilities and their families and graduated nearly 150 rescue dogs as service dogs. The organization’s clinical staff have a combined 50 years of experience providing therapeutic services!

Today, P&S has 18 staff, approximately 90 volunteers, and serves 75-100 families annually with service dog training, companion animal services, counseling, peer support, and case management. Veterans experience a variety of comorbidities related to their disabilities including PTSD (83%), depression (73%), chronic pain (50%), and suicidal ideation (67%). Tragically, 40% of veterans do not have access to VA care and only one in five women who do, say they feel comfortable treating there. NM has the 2nd highest suicide rate in the country.

The program provides all of this at NO COST to the veterans or their families with three core programs:

1) Service Animal Training: Our specialized 12-month program is a challenging curriculum still requiring hard work and dedication. Every Veteran is required to complete at least 15 hours of class work, community service, and homework each week. Twice a month, they attend mental health counseling and a one-hour psyche-educational class by licensed clinicians to teach them individual symptoms and triggers. Our staff show veterans how to train his/her rescue dog to become a medical tool personalized to their specific needs. Family members become better equipped to share their roles as caregivers with a service dog and how to identify community opportunities for future wellness and ongoing care beyond Paws and Stripes.

2) Companion Animal Program: Our six-week therapeutic program that Veterans complete with their pet. Teams complete many of the same trainings, but the animal serves only as buddy, helping them address their trauma at counseling sessions, psyche ed classes, and group therapy that’s frequency varies by the needs of the client.

3) ;Paws Forward Suicide Prevention Services: a multi-faceted program focusing on mental health and suicide prevention. Providing catered clinical services, peer support, and case management, Veterans enrolled in our programs learn life skills that create increased self-awareness in their environments. Our programs provide the insight necessary to deal with stressors that come with everyday civilian life including finances, career challenges, navigating to receive medical/mental health care, caring for children, and maintaining healthy relationships while aiming to decrease dangerous thoughts and behaviors including suicide, self-harm, domestic violence, and substance use. Staff offer both traditional therapy methods and non-traditional methods such as art therapy, yoga, movement therapy, mindfulness and meditation, and self-care education.

Our Impact: Ninety percent of our dogs come from local NM shelters and $0.82 of every dollar goes directly to our programs. Over the past year, Paws and Stripes has provided services to 118 Veteran families and the results speak for themselves: 85% spend more time with friends and family, 73% get better sleep, and 93% say their symptoms of PTSD have improved. One graduate told us he was able to attend his child's Boy Scout den meetings and soccer games for the first time in years. His family reports he is much calmer, and their relationships together have improved. Another family reported being able to go to a restaurant together and not being able to remember their Veteran being in a healthy place to do that in a long time. These day-to-day differences would not be possible without the support for employees and organizations like Intel.