SARASOTA, Fla. — Demi is a four-pound Teacup Yorkie that brings joy to the members at Town Square University Parkway. Unlike other adult daycare centers, Town Square embraces a medical model, so a therapy dog is a perfect fit.
“Everyone will tell you animals provide unconditional love, and that’s what Demi does for the members here,” explained Catherine McDermott. She said Demi is "gentle and kind and attentive and allows the members to hold her, pet her, love on her.”
Many of the residents at Town Square suffer from dementia, abd anyone who’s watched members of their family live with the disease knows how often the best way to communicate by looking into the past.
“Town Square provides for these families the opportunity to give them respite from the caregiving role as well as engaging the member with lots of fun activities, and they leave feeling fulfilled and enriched back from a time when they felt like they were productive members of society,” said McDermott.
The center provides eight hours of quality time spent daily with a caring staff and loveable dog. Plus, all the smiles, laughter, and dancing are pretty good medicine too.
“There’s a huge population of people who are struggling to live at home with dementia, and not everybody has the resources, or the ability or the desire to move into an assisted living community,” explained McDermott.
You can learn more about Town Square and their services here.
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