Page 6 - Mobility Management, October/November 2019

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24-Hour Support in Living Color Sitt’er Sleep’er Is Freedom Concepts’ Latest Inclusive Intervention
For nearly 30 years, the Freedom Concepts team,
in colorful Hawaiian shirts and with equally colorful adaptive bikes, has infused inclusion and mobility with fun. Ken Vanstraelen, the Manitoba manufacturer’s President/Owner, often asks a question that could be the company tagline: “Who doesn’t want to ride a bike?”
But Freedom Concepts takes clinical benefits very seri- ously. Thanks to expanding designs and customization abilities, Vanstraelen says just about any client can now ride a Freedom Concepts bike. And the company’s latest offering continues that theme of inclusion.
The Principles of Seating
Dan Judson, Physiotherapist, is Freedom Concepts’ Education & Territory Manager. “Everybody benefits from good posture and proper postural support,” he said. “Individuals in wheelchairs are in those devices because their bodies require facilitation and support for them to be able to function. So Freedom Concepts, with our bikes and with our chairs, takes pride in the fact that we can get chil- dren into something that supports them, has therapeutic benefits, provides and addresses all the basic principles of
24-Hour Support, Sitting or Sleeping
Freedom Concepts’ latest launch is the Sitt’er Sleep’er, which provides support during upright sitting as well as supine lying, while maintaining transportability.
“The Sitt’er Sleep’er has many advantages, one of them being the fact that it can limit the number of transfers needed per day,” Vanstraelen said, “It’s still movable within the household. It has the ability to lay flat, and to go up and down for transferring. It has the ability to lower
and raise the legs, lower and raise the back, and you can customize the mattress system to meet your needs.”
“For clients who
spend a great
deal of time in a bed,” Judson said,
“the benefits are the postural support, the adjustability of position and the ability to be moved room to room and even potentially outdoors because of its width. From a caregiver point of view, the simple raising and lowering can aid in providing care, for personal hygiene or clothing changes or feeding.
“The patient population who will be spending a lot
of time in a bed or wheelchair is at high risk for pres-
sure injuries, just by the nature of their immobility and spending a lot of time on a surface. Because we manu- facture the beds and mattresses, we are able to incorpo- rate pressure-relieving surfaces into the mattress itself.”
The Sitt’er Sleep’er can be outfitted in the same array of fabrics available in the Chill-Out Chair. Powered raising/lowering eases caregiver workload, while a relatively compact footprint can mean the difference between being confined in one room versus joining family and friends, wherever they are.
“We’ve adapted along the path of alternative seating,” Vanstraelen said. “We’ve grown with the category; we haven’t stood still with our design. We work so closely with families that we can’t ignore the needs of siblings and the parents; they have their needs as well. Everyone wants and deserves to be included.”
—Laurie Watanabe
Chill-Out Chair
seating, but also lets them have fun on something that looks good and is comfortable.”
Freedom Concepts’ Chill-Out Chair, the lead product of the company’s seating brand, is a customiz- able seat with serious support. “We need to address first those areas of function and look at
the general principles of seating,” Judson said. “[Users] are supported so they can maintain upright posture for breathing, respiration, feeding and swallowing, and
to address and accommodate for structural asymme- tries and areas of weakness so they can function in the device they’re in.
“I hear from families: ‘We have company over, and Isabelle is in her wheelchair.’ You can prop her up on
the couch with cushions, but it’s not adequate support. The Chill-Out Chair provides postural support [and] looks like another piece of furniture. You can customize the chair in any way needed. We have external positioning wedges that work for most kids, but we can customize any positioning wedge to accommodate any individual.”
6 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2019 | MOBILITY MANAGEMENT
MobilityMgmt.com
Sitt’er Sleep’er