Recently in seniors and pets Category

A USA Today story this week reports that nursing and senior-living homes are increasingly rewriting the rules to allow pets to move in.

"People grow up with animals, have had them all their lives, and this is their home now, so why wouldn't they have pets here?" says Helene King, communication coordinator for Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center and Hospital in Baltimore, one of 300 facilities worldwide operating under the "Eden Alternative" philosophy, which integrates animals, plants and contact with children into daily routines to keep the elderly engaged. "It makes such a big difference in their lives." .......

"Animals re-engage people with life," says Loren Shook, who decades ago saw the positive effect of animals on the patients at the psychiatric hospitals where his family worked. Now, as CEO of Silverado (senior living homes), he has instituted a must-have-animals policy at all 17 facilities. "Having animals in our facilities reduces depression and anxiety and reduces the need for psychotropic drugs by 35%."

 (Above, Phyllis Cornish pets a Pomeranian named Dakota)

Photo: Jeffrey D. Allred for USA TODAY