Audit of Guide and Service Dog Program

This audit evaluated VHA’s progress in providing guide and service dogs to qualified veterans. The absence of implementing criteria imposes challenges to VHA for the implementation of the Guide and Service Dog Program. Although VHA has assisted visually impaired veterans in obtaining guide dogs for several decades, they only started assisting mobility and hearing impaired veterans with service dogs in 2008—6 years after being authorized to do so. Since FY 2009, VHA provided financial support to over 230 veterans for guide dogs. However, VHA provided financial support to only eight veterans for service dogs. VHA personnel told us the actual demand for service dogs is unknown. VHA has not provided sufficient guidance to VA medical center personnel to ensure consistent decisions on veterans’ requests for service dogs. Also, VHA has not made their personnel fully aware of these potential benefits and the application process involved. VHA Handbook 1173.05 only prescribes policies and procedures applicable to providing guide dogs to visually impaired veterans. VHA is in the process of determining the appropriateness of using service dogs to assist veterans with mental impairments. We recommended the Under Secretary for Health issue comprehensive interim guidance to ensure VA medical center personnel are aware of and better understand the qualifying criteria for service dog benefits and the process required to apply for them. The Under Secretary for Health agreed to develop clinical criteria to determine whether a veteran would benefit from a service dog. The Under Secretary also stated that immediately after the formal regulations exercising VHA’s authority are published, scheduled for July 2011, VHA will issue a directive defining VHA’s policy on issuing service dogs.