Please Help My Brother Miles Train His Service Dog!

Hello everyone! My name is Matthias Smith, and I’m a teacher in Florida.

I am raising funds on behalf of my brother, Miles, and his family. Miles will be 30 this year and has spent too much of his life battling mental illness. He has been through intensive therapy multiple times in several different formats, and has had a parade of doctors come in and go out of his life without really being able to help him. His various diagnoses include bipolar with psychotic features, PTSD, borderline personality disorder, and schizoaffective disorder. Miles deals with intermittent psychotic episodes with visual and auditory hallucinations that vary in intensity and duration. Their onset is sudden, much like a panic attack. Miles has some suicidal ideation as a result of the depression that accompanies his condition.

Miles has tried his entire adult life to build a career, but his illness has always prevented it. He has had several brilliant starts in music engineering, retail and restaurant management, cooking, large animal care, teaching, and child care just to name a few. He does well and leads what could be called a "normal" life for periods of time, but his illness always derails his hard work at some point and renders him unable to meet the demands of a career. It is heartbreaking because anyone who has ever known Miles knows how amazing he is, how he excels at everything he gets passionate about, and how he throws himself into being successful. He is devastated every time he has to step back, and we don't know how long this cycle can continue before he truly loses hope. He is in the process of qualifying for disability, but the government moves about as a fast as a glacier, so he is doing odd jobs here and there until he can get approved, at which point he will try to fashion some kind of healthy life but without the pressure of a full time job.

Miles has an amazing wife, Paige, who has been by his side since he was 19 years old, supporting him and enduring every crisis with him. One of the best days of my life was when I got the privilege to be the Best Man at their wedding. She's exhausted trying to be his constant support while also dealing with the practical aspect of holding a household together and keeping bills paid. I don't know how she does it and I love that she refuses to give up on him. They have a 3 year old son, Rory, who is smart and beautiful and deserves the very best life, which they so desperately want to give him.

Right now they are behind on everything and their families have been helping as much as we all can. Where the need is right now is for the suggestion his new doctor made that might make it possible for Miles to live a more normal life and be able to participate more fully with his family and in the community - a service dog. NOT an ESA, but a true service dog that would be able to detect oncoming psychotic episodes and help Miles stay cognizant and safe, protecting him from harm that might result from his reaction to his hallucinations, and alleviating the subsequent depression. Miles has a beautiful Golden Retriever named Daisy Mae, after our recently passed great-grandmother, but she’s untrained. The cost of the training is right around $4k but that does not include her other expenses, especially vet bills! Plus there will be some travel and some other expenses related to the training. Any extra funds collected will be applied to the massive debt they have accrued.

Miles and his whole family have been blessed with many people who love him and see him for the amazing human being he REALLY is, and I am reaching out to them and asking for this request to be spread. Miles deserves to be able to live as normal a life as possible and I would do anything to help him achieve that. His biggest concern is always what he can and can't do for Paige and Rory, and having a fully-trained service dog would make it easier for him to feel like he is a vital part of the family and not a burden (we tell him all the time he's not, but he doesn't believe us).

As always, anything you can help with is VERY appreciated and we also ask that you share and spread this link so we can get this process started.