Day 7 – What is an everyday living aid and why does it matter?

So what is an everyday living aid, or a daily living aid, or a mobility aid?  Well, simply put, they’re any device, tool or assistance that help individuals perform various tasks and activities in their daily lives particularly if they have physical, sensory or cognitive limitations.  These aids, in their various forms, all have one main goal in common – to enhance independence, improve quality of life and promote inclusion for elderly individuals or people with disabilities.

Rosa Lifestyle’s products are really adaptive items designed to enable people to perform simple eating and drinking activities independently.  This is a really important point and underpins the very ethos of my business.  It’s imperative that people are enabled to continue to lead as independent and autonomous a life as possible so that they can continue to participate in society in a dignified way. 

Daily living aids can also enhance safety allowing people to engage with daily activities more easily and there’s no greater daily activity than having a cup of tea or coffee.  By reducing barriers and enabling greater individual functionality, everyday living aids contribute to an improved quality of life and well-being for the elderly or anyone living with a disability.

When I first started designing my two handled mugs, I’ll be honest and say that I was designing them initially for people living with dementia and Alzheimer’s – for no other reason really than because this is what my gran/ Nonna was diagnosed with.  However it was while my mugs were getting a test run at a dementia café in St Andrews that one of the regular lady’s husband tried one of my mugs.  He has Parkinson’s disease and although the mug was only half full of coffee, he was absolutely delighted to report that for the first time in over a year and a half, he was able to drink his coffee independently!  This was when I first realised that there was a much wider community of people who could benefit from a little more support with their day to day drinking and eating.   I had feedback from another customer’s wife – she has no physical disability but has very limited vision and the customer was pleased to report that the two handles really helped to guide the mug to her mouth which in turn boosted her confidence when having a drink.

This all matters, it is hugely important to me that my products can, in any small way, enhance the daily lives of everyone who needs a little extra support – after all, there’s nothing better than a nice wee cup of tea or coffee…at literally any given point of the day!