Visiting Nurse has begun offering a new program, “Pet Peace of Mind,” which provides volunteer pet care to keep hospice patients together with their pets.

“Pet Peace of Mind” honors the human – animal bond and the importance of keeping patients with their beloved pets while also ensuring pets are receiving required care and feeding. This Visiting Nurse program provides volunteer pet care services for the agency’s patients who are unable to care for their pets while receiving hospice care.  Patients may become too tired or ill to tend to the needs of their pet but depend upon their pet for companionship and comfort.  Services include: assistance with pet food, transporting the pet to veterinary appointments, pet waste clean-up, boarding and walking, and financial assistance if necessary. Visiting Nurse is collaborating with community partners to provide additional services based on the needs of the individual and the pet.

Visiting Nurse is the only hospice agency in Indiana offering the “Pet Peace of Mind” program. Funding has been provided by the Banfield Charitable Trust.

“Visiting Nurse strives to meet both the physical and emotional needs of our patients. This program literally helps ease the mind of our hospice patients who are often anxious and concerned about the care of their beloved pet,” said Phyllis Hermann, CEO, Visiting Nurse. “Pets are part of the patient’s family and this program will help keep our patient together with their pet.”

You can help support this effort by making donations to Visiting Nurse “Pet Peace of Mind” or by becoming a volunteer. For more information to make a donation online, visit www.vnfw.org

Visiting Nurse is a locally-based, non-profit provider of palliative home care and hospice services available to patients in their own home, in an assisted living or care facility or in the agency’s Hospice Home, the area’s only free-standing facility dedicated to the needs of the terminally-ill and their families. For information call (260) 435-3222.