KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' latest report shows the veteran suicide rate in Missouri is significantly higher than the national veteran suicide rate.
VOICE FOR EVERYONE | Share your voice with KSHB 41’s Caroline Hogan
But Retrieving Freedom in Missouri is working to combat that.
The nonprofit is designed to train and assign service dogs to veterans, which KSHB 41's Caroline Hogan learned makes a big difference.
Patrick Genseal is one success story.
He holds a lot of emotional weight from his 20 years of service as a military chaplain. His eight-month tour in Iraq was especially taxing.
"Every other place I’d been I was with a team, whereas here it was just me," Genseal said.
Now, the veteran has someone to help bear the burden — his dog named June.
Aside from helping Genseal up and picking things off the floor, he said June helps him get out of his head.
"It's just allowed me to really work more on me," he said.
There are even commands for June to help calm him down.
"Just having her lay her head on my lap, it's like, 'I'm here, we'll get through this ... you're not going through it alone, we're here as a team,'" Genseal said.
Retrieving Freedom has assigned 150 service dogs in 19 different states.
Trainer Bailey Inman's favorite part about her job is seeing the change in clients' attitudes.
"It can be like a complete 180 of just they're more confident, they're more comfortable, they're less anxious," Inman said.
She even notices such therapeutic elements in herself.
"I know that when I'm in my office doing paperwork stuff and have not had hands-on training with the dog, I make time in my day to go get a dog and work a dog," Inman said.
At the end of the day, Genseal said June is like a built-in weighted blanket, a weight he doesn't mind carrying.
"Every night when I crawl [into bed,] that's the first thing she does," Genseal said. "She jumps up and boom, lays on top ... like we made it through the day."
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