ROANOKE, Va. ( WFXR )– Earlier this month, Capital Caring Health donated six robotic pets to each of the three Veterans Care Centers in Virginia, which includes a location in Roanoke.
The robotic pets are designed to keep the residents company, particularly among those coping with dementia. They respond to human touch and perform normal dog and animal actions such as purring, barking, panting, and even shedding.
Existing centers in Richmond, Roanoke, and Virginia Beach have already received their animals and a new facility in Warrenton will receive its pets once it opens. The Roanoke facility already had eight of these robots on hand and had an idea of how they were received by patients.
“The residents find comfort from petting them and gain relaxation from it,” said Maeghan Hubbard, the activities director for Davis & McDaniel Veterans Care Center in Roanoke.
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It is well known that contact with certain animals can have positive physical manifestations in humans, such as relief from stress. Staff members with Capital Caring and at Davis & McDaniel say that robots can have that effect too, without posing certain issues that could come about when patients interact with live animals.