(Photos: @franciscanchildrens)
Marcus, a highly trained service dog, has joined Franciscan Children’s in Brighton this summer and will serve all children and adolescents within the organization who are facing complex healthcare and educational needs.
Marcus was welcomed to campus with a brief ceremony with staff and patients on Wednesday, July 18th. The ceremony was followed by a special reading to children by Boston Marathon bombing survivor Patrick Downes.
Marcus will offer companionship, comfort, positive attention and entertainment, primarily to inpatients in the medical rehabilitation and pulmonary rehabilitation units. He will also support patients’ occupational and physical therapies through recreational play and helping with daily feeding and grooming tasks. Marcus will also serve the hard-working and dedicated staff who work day in and day out with children by providing them with an opportunity to decompress, spending time with employees when he is not working with patients.
Marcus will be onsite Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and will work directly with his caretaker Julie Jankun, RN, a Nurse Manager from the medical units who has been with Franciscan Children’s for over 20 years.
Marcus joins Franciscan Children’s thanks to the support of generous donors Mike and Susan Curtain, via the Kenrose Kitchen Table Foundation, as well as a new partnership with NEADS, a nonprofit that was established in 1976 and has trained over 1,700 service dog teams.
