Purina Family Pet Center - Helping Heal with the Whole Family

Purina Family Pet Center, partnered with the St. Louis Children's Hospital, is the first center of its kind in the United States and only the fourth of its kind in the entire world. The Purina Family Pet Center is all about helping children get well with the help of their entire family, both two and four legged.

Purina Family Pet Center - Because Our Pets are Part of the Family

What Purina and the St. Louis Children's Hospital have done is beyond amazing. We often hear about the healing power of pets and joy, both of which are often connected, yet pet are almost always excluded from a patient's care. What the heck? When you're laid up in the hospital, being away from the family pet can be miserable, especially if you're a kid. Adults can handle stresses like that a little better, but to a kid, being away from their four legged best friends is torture. That's NOT conducive to getting better!

05.18.2016 - Opening of the Purina Family Pet Center in St. Louis.
Photo by Mary Butkus

Here's an interesting tidbit for everybody. Studies have shown that spending time with pets can reduce pain, anxiety, depression, and fatigue in patients with a wide range of health issues and in patients who are staying in long term health care facilities. So basically, our pets can help heal us. To most hospitals, the possible positive impacts are outweighed by concerns over health codes and other hurdles. Hurdles which could be overcome, but aren't exactly cheap.

A patient a the St. Louis Children's Hospital asked to see their pet while they were ill in the hospital. So what did the hospital do? Well, they certainly didn't just say, "Sorry. We can't do that." Oh no. Instead that request got them thinking about the study and all the good that pets could do for their patients. The culmination of all of that thinking was a partnership with Purina to build the Purina Family Pet Center, a place were patients of the St. Louis Children's Hospital can go to see their pets without leaving behind the staff, technology, and medications that they so desperately need.

05.18.2016 - Opening of the Purina Family Pet Center in St. Louis.
Photo by Mary Butkus

But, as LeVar Burton says, don't just take my word for it. Click here to watch a video on the Purina Family Pet Center and the work it's doing.

Purina Family Pet Center and St. Louis Children's Hospital - Care that Cares

I absolutely love what Purina and the St. Louis Children's Hospital are doing. Thanks to their partnership, children who are already going through so much can see their pets and find a little normalcy in their lives. With the Purina Family Pet Center, care actually involves caring, and I think that's a spectacular thing.