Hi,

Im Catherine Peters and I am trying to raise funds so I can train a service dog to help me with my daily living. I have lived with schizophrenia for the last 14 years. In that time I have had 3 major episodes requiring hospitalization. After each hospitalization my regular daily life has gotten harder to manage. I struggle going in public as I suffer from intense auditory hallucinations and other symptoms. It gets overwhelming and sometimes I have to leave stores abruptly. I experience severe anxiety going into public and a service dog that could provide a buffer, tactile stimulation and recognize when Im getting overloaded would help me manage my public experiences and make me more comfortable being in public with their support.

Familiar events are even challenging, when Im at a gathering of friends and family I experience auditory hallucinations as well, I don’t constantly ask people if they said certain things as to not disrupt the flow of the gathering, make people uncomfortable or make the whole evening be about me. Having a service dog in those situations would be extremely helpful as they would be completely focused on me and how I'm feeling and recognize when I get overwhelmed and provide tactile stimulation to draw me out of my head for a moment and comfort and ground me. This would allow me to function better overall, encourage and ability to work and prevent the requirement for days of recovery afterward.

This is something I've been waiting a long time for and I know it would help me immensely with being comfortable in my daily living as I would be less afraid of going in public or social gatherings and be supported through those experiences.

Thank you for listening and if you can, any bit helps.