We've all experienced a mental blank before, but when it happens to Sally* an episode can last for hours and place her in life-threatening danger.
"You can actually freeze and go into a trance. You can't see through your eyes, you can't move your body, you can't hear through your ears — you're just locked," she said.
Once, Sally's handbag was stolen from under her nose. Another time, she says she was sexually assaulted while sitting on a park bench.
Sally's mental blanks occur because of dissociative identity disorder, a condition previously known as multiple personality disorder.
She also lives with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety and depression, which she links back to abuse she endured during her childhood.
Sally's disability deteriorated to the point where she faced the prospect of needing a full-time carer. Her psychologists recommended another option — a trained psychiatric assistance dog.
The Melbourne woman credits her three-year-old Kelpie, Toby, with transforming her life.
The dog goes everywhere with Sally and has been trained to detect when she falls into a dissociative state and then to "wake" her by offering a nudge or a solid whack with its tail.
"I'm so much happier. I can go to the shops, I can go to the gym, I can catch public transport, which I was never able to do," she said.
Sally said Toby was also trained to calm her during the regular nightmares and night terrors she experiences, by jumping on the bed and sitting on her chest.
Dog dispute winds up in tribunal
Since being brought home as a pup, Toby has completed hundreds of training hours through psychiatric assistance dog association Mind Dog Australia.
While Sally has no doubts about Toby's effectiveness, she was met with scepticism when she requested funding for the dog's training and upkeep through the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
The agency that administers the scheme knocked back Sally's request, but she appealed, leading to a two-year legal battle.
In documents seen by the ABC, agency staff said they did not believe the dog represented "value for money". The agency also said Sally failed to meet the criteria for a psychiatric assistance dog, because it only granted funding to people with PTSD only, and not to those who had additional mental health conditions.
The matter was eventually settled in September after Sally and her legal team took the case to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
The settlement documents show the agency agreed to pay out about $8,200 and will provide about $240 each month for things like vet checks and food, provided Toby passes yearly assessments.
'Many people' missing out on funding
Sally's lawyer Lucy Geddes, from the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, said the case highlighted "significant problems" with the National Disability Insurance Agency's (NDIA) guidelines for psychiatric assistance dog funding.
Ms Geddes said she believed the current guidelines were at odds with the NDIS Act, which says funding should provided if it is deemed "reasonable" and "necessary".
"We understand that there are many people who are in Sally's position — people with complex disabilities who would benefit from having an assistance animal but aren't able to get funding for this," Ms Geddes said.
Mind Dog Australia's Gayl O'Grady said many of her clients had funding requests knocked back, leading to lengthy tribunal disputes.
She also called for the agency to broaden its funding criteria to include people with PTSD as well as other psychological conditions.
'Limited evidence' on benefits, NDIA says
The NDIA declined to answer questions about why its published guidelines limit psychiatric animal assistance to people with PTSD only.
It also did not say how many people were locked in tribunal battles with the agency over funding support. An agency spokesperson said it did not keep data on how many applications it rejected each year.
The spokesperson said the agency had paid for 495 assistance animals to date, with a committed funding total of $26.8 million. About 90 per cent of the animals were used by people with visual impairments.
The NDIS website said there was "limited evidence available about the benefits of assistance animals for people with some types of disability", citing a report from La Trobe University completed in 2016.
Sally said she was pleased to have finally reached a financial settlement with the NDIA, and hopes her case will set a precedent for others with complex mental health conditions who are hoping for assistance dog funding.
"For the quality of life I get, it's priceless," she said.
*Sally's name has been changed to protect her identity.
