Comfort on a daily basis with Ovidis adaptive clothes
Ovidis adaptive clothes service both people with loss of autonomy or reduced mobility and their caregivers
Did you ever start your day thinking you knew how it was going to go and everything but what you thought was going to happen happened? Well, that’s what took place a few weeks ago. The day promised to be busy with the usual tasks related to an adaptive clothing business such as reviewing and approving new styles and prints, receiving new items and posting them online, as well as processing and shipping customer orders to only name a few but a visitor made time stand still.
Our Head Office, located on the North shore in Laval, also serves as a store and we are used to having clients there. Some know us and know exactly what they are looking for while others are more in ‘discovery’ mode because they have been asked to get adaptive clothes for a family member who suffers from cognitive or physical loss or they did their own research following a conversation with friends. This was the case with Mrs. France Papineau Pommier. Her mother suffers from frontotemporal dementia and has recently become aggressive. The task of dressing is everything but simple for her mother who, due to her diagnosis, has a hard time trusting the personnel of the care facility where she lives who comes to dress or change her as she now also suffers from incontinence. As such, two caregivers look after holding her upper body and arms while two other ones put her clothes on as best as they can while dodging kicks and punches that are due to the fact that her mother, or rather, her mother’s illness, causes her to have trouble understanding why these people are in her bubble trying to get her dressed. A friend of Mrs. Papineau Pommier who works in the hospital sector suggested that she find adaptive clothes for her mother after she shared with her what was happening on a daily basis when it came time to dress her mother for the day or for the night. Her friend said this type of clothing could greatly hep reduce the stress and anxiety linked to the task of dressing. Seeing a possible solution that could improve her mother’s daily life, she undertook her research.
“I didn’t know such clothes existed because no one had ever spoken to me about them before. I quickly landed on the page of an American company but since I believe in and wanted to support a local company, I continued my research until I found Ovidis’ adaptive wear company. I came by their store and they took the time to understand my needs and explain the various characteristics of each garment. I left with a selection of adapted clothes I hoped would improve my mother’s daily life as well as that of her caregivers.”
Dementia Clothing
Since the introduction of Ovidis’ adaptive clothing into her mother’s daily routine, the task of dressing has become that much easier to accomplish. The adaptive wear clothes that slips on easily and attaches at the back thanks to the complete back openings and snap closures make it easy to quickly have Mrs. Papineau Pommier’s mother slip into a top. Furthermore, the pants with open back panels and Velcro closures greatly facilitate dressing and changing her. This moment that was once riddled with anxiety for her mother, is now much smoother. So much so, that the care facility where her mother lives has asked her to get a larger quantity of adaptive clothes.
There are encounters in life that are striking, decisive, while others serve to validate the decisions and choices we have made. Our meeting with Mrs. Papineau Pommier did exactly that; it confirmed that our decision to launch a local company that aimed to meet the clothing needs of people with loss of autonomy or reduced mobility by simplifying the task of dressing has more than ever, it’s raison d’être.
What started out as a way for us to ensure our respective mothers could dress easily while respecting their personal style, and above all respecting their dignity, quickly became a way for us to offer a complete selection of quality, easy to care for adaptive clothing for men and women suffering from cognitive or physical loss. With time, our desire to simplify and as such make the task of dressing an easier one to go through, both for the caregivers and for our loved ones, has transformed and allowed Ovidis to morph into what it is today thanks to each and every one of you who have supported and purchased our locally designed adaptive clothes and we are very grateful to you. It’s the reason why it is always a pleasure to welcome you when you shop in person and to read you when you write to us to share your comments and new outfit pictures. At Ovidis, more than ever, your daily comfort is at the heart of our creative process.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Mrs. France Papineau Pommier for her generosity when it came to sharing her personal experience during the conversation we had with her that inspired us to write this article.
Ovidis Team
info@ovidis.com | 1-833-736-7362