Dogs support police officers with PTSD
Thousands of police officers live with post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of traumatic incidents in the course of their work — and it turns out a dog nearby can genuinely help.
Neurobiologist Charlotte Witjes-Roelofs defends her doctoral thesis at Radboud University tomorrow (October 1). Her research, reported September 26 and published in the journal Anthrozoös, found that officers with PTSD scored better on working-memory tasks with their dog nearby — while people without PTSD actually scored worse.
The Police Academy commissioned the study after its assistance dogs seemed to help severe cases. There are now 166 assistance dogs in service with the police, and a companion-dog training program has been added to the PTSD support package — so officers can learn, with their own family dog, how the animal can steady them when tension rises.
Witjes-Roelofs hopes other first-responder organizations will take note: the Ministry of Defence and fire departments are already working on deploying assistance dogs, and ambulance personnel could benefit too.
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