Here is our winner Heidi with her Dycem Non-Slip prize bundle
At the American Occupational Therapy Association’s annual Conference this year, our roving reporter asked the Occupational Therapists how they use Dycem to make their day-to-day jobs easier.
We collected all of their responses using a video camera and voice recorder and them into a competition.
The prize up for grabs was $200 of Dycem Non-Slip products (in the colour of their choice) and an iPad mini!
We got lots of responses from many enthusiastic OT’s and health professionals and gathered them together into a video, which you can see here;
We then selected a winner at random, Heidi Carpenter, and she chose to receive her Dycem Non-Slip prize in Lime Green.
Here is what she had to say about winning;
“I am so thrilled. I think Dycem is such an awesome product to use in therapy. Thank you so much.”
Congratulations to Heidi!
For you chance to win, look out for the Dycem Non-Slip stand at the next AOTA conference which will be held in Chicago next year.
At the Naidex National Conference this year, we asked attendees how they use Dycem Non-Slip to make their lives easier.
We gathered together all of their responses using a voice recorder or video camera (if they were feeling brave) and entered them into a competition.
The prize up for grabs was £100 worth of Dycem Non-Slip products (in the colour of their choice) and an Ipad Mini!
We had lots of entries and found lots of interesting uses for Dycem Non-Slip, including using the reel material to secure spools on a knitting loom, to simple things like using Dycem under a set top box, to keep it from falling off the top of the telly.
Our lucky winner, Christina Theobald, was selected at random and chose to receive her Dycem prize range in silver. Here is what she had to say about winning;
“I am absolutely delighted and surprised to have won. I’d forgotten I’d entered a competition because I was busy being nervous about being filmed. The Dycem will come in handy, as I like to demonstrate it to people and I like the silver because it’s a non-clinical colour.”
Congratulations to Christina. To see Christina’s entry, plus a selection of others, check out this video of how Dycem Non-Slip can help people live independently;
For another chance to win a Dycem prize bundle, look out for our cameras and roving reporter at the COT Annual Exhibition and Conference at Brighton Centre, Brighton 30th June- 2nd July 2015.
We are delighted to read that Dycem’s Non-Slip mats and reels have been branded as a ‘must have’ gadget by a family caregiver with over 30 years’ experience. Writing for the over 50s membership organisation AARP, family caregiver Amy Goyer praised Dycem’s excellent non-slip properties for its myriad of uses;
Stopping plates ‘sliding around’ with a Dycem Non-Slip mat which enabled her Mother to eat more easily following a stroke. Her Father also uses it to stop his plate sliding around.
Preventing the family dog from moving its bowl when eating or drinking, preventing spillages of food or water.
Avoiding accidents as the Non-Slip properties of a Dycem mat also make dog bowl ‘virtually trip-proof’ as it ‘sticks’ to the tile.
Make dining and cooking easier by cutting and wrapping Dycem’s Non-Slip material around utensil handles or placing underneath a chopping board to ‘keep it from slipping’:
I particularly recommend Dycem, a nonslip material used by many occupational and physical therapists. It comes in different sizes and colors; it even comes in rolls, so you can cut it to your preferred size, wrap it around utensil handles or use it under a cutting board to keep it from slipping.
Here at Dycem Non-Slip, we always look forward to exhibiting at the AOTA Conference and Expo as it’s a great chance to meet with Occupational Therapists who are enthusiastic about Dycem and how it helps them in their work.
At this year’s event in Nashville, we gathered together a list of uses for Dycem Non-Slip in an occupational therapy setting. Here are some of the best uses for Dycem we heard from the AOTA 2015 attendees;
Dycem in a Clinical Setting
“I’m a hand therapist; I actually use it for scar tissue, to soften up the scars after tendons surgery.”
“I use Dycem all the time on the grab bar, so that the people who don’t have the strength to hang on can use it to hang on to the grab bar to do transfers.”
“I use Dycem all the time for my weight baring clients, to make sure that they don’t slip or fall and they NEVER do, it’s great. I also use it for standing.”
“I use Dycem for when a patient does sit to stand from the wheelchair up to standing with the rolling walker and it supports their feet. Sometimes their feet slip because the person has suffered a stroke and I have to place their foot to stop it from slipping”.
“I’ve used Dycem, just a roll of Dycem, in rehab a lot where you can cut pieces to size. It helps with keeping seating position in place or just for dynamic stuff like armchair positioning especially for neural rehab.”
“To help a paediatric patient with fine motor co-ordination work.”
“Dycem is one of the most versatile tools we have in therapy, we can use it to make grips, and we can use it in our day to day practice to help hold limbs and position feet where they’re supposed to be. It’s marvellous for seating as well as adapting other equipment.”
“I use it to hold my interactive metronome down.”
“I use the self-adhesive Dycem to line finger splints, so they don’t slip. Sometimes finger splints will migrate forward and when they need to wash the splint, they can also wash the Dycem.”
“I use Dycem for rehabilitation, especially with my stroke patients with feeding. It builds grip, offers table support and it’s good for wheelchair adjustments, such as breaks. We’re not able to modify people’s chairs so we have to use other means to adapt.”
“We use Dycem to keep the plates from sliding for clients with fine motor difficulties and for horse therapy (hippotherapy) we can use it on the horses to keep the clients body from sliding on saddles and keep them centred.”
“I use Dycem on horse reigns for my clients when performing hippotherapy.
Dycem in the Home
“I use Dycem for my exercise bike, to hold it in place.”
“I actually I just moved into a new place and the toilet was wobbly, so I couldn’t put anything on to it. I took all of my things, my toiletries and I put them on a tray and I put a little sample size of Dycem under the tray and now it doesn’t slip off anymore.”
“To hold a cutting board in place in the kitchen.”
“I use it to hold the tower in place when I play Jenga.”
“I use it to keep a sewing machine from sliding.”
“We use it to keep someone’s remote from sliding off the table.”
Dycem On-the-Go
“I use Dycem in wheelchairs to stop patients sliding out of their seats.”
“I actually use it play racket ball and tennis with, I use regular grips that I buy at the store that don’t last as long or grip as well. I wrap it around like a regular grip tape, you just make a spiral out of it and it stays on forever and it actually has ‘tackier’ properties and I don’t have to wear a racket glove with it, so it’s great.”
“I use Dycem with my Grandmother to provide a non-slip surface as she gets up and walks out of the restaurant.”
“I give the small circle piece out for people to take out with them to restaurants to put under a plate when they eat.”
Dycem for Gaining Independence
“I work in a facility where we use Dycem all the time for positioning and self-feeding and helping people to improve their independence.”
“I use Dycem Bottle Openers for my arthritic hands, to open my medicine.”
“We use Dycem for colour contrast as well as stabilisation with one-handed techniques like brushing teeth.”
“I use Dycem Jar Openers with amputee patients or patients with arthritis. It helps them to open doors.”
“I would use Dycem for people with low strength who want wash a pot or pan.”
“You can use Dycem Mats to put paper on, so people who only have one hand can use it to write.”
“I use Dycem to help with medication management, to stabilise the pill organiser.”
“We use Dycem for everything. I use it primarily with spinal cord patients; it keeps their cell phones from sliding when they’re trying to type.”
“My best use for Dycem is when I cut a piece into two- inch squares and I put it under the chair for a lady who when she stood up, the chair slid backwards. This was causing safety problem for her, but thanks to Dycem, the patient reduced her fall risk significantly.”
Dycem in Education/Learning
“I have a student who likes to slide out of his chair, so I put the Dycem in his chair so he cannot slide and it works wonderfully.”
“I use it for feeding to make sure bowls and plates don’t slip.
“To stabilise papers on desk.”
“I’m a student so I use Dycem in school. In eating competency class we had to use the Dycem to show how a patient can keep their plate on the table.”
“I use the self-stick Dycem to put on the back of clipboards for students. So that they can move the clipboard wherever they’re going and it doesn’t slip.”
We would like to thank everyone we met at AOTA this year for their best uses for Dycem Non-Slip. And if you have any others to add to the list, please share with us your ideas below.
For those with visual impairments, Dycem Non-Slip is a fantastic aid to secure household objects in place, making them easy to find and use.
For example, putting a non-slip mat under your alarm clock will prevent it from slipping off the bedside table if you accidently hit the ‘snooze’ button with a little too much force on a weekday morning.
This use for Dycem, along with many others, were mentioned in a recent interview for Infosound– a charity that offers impartial advice to those with visual impairments. The interview featured Lesley Duroe from the RNIB, where she discusses the versatility of the Dycem non-slip range;
“Dycem is a non-slip material, so basically it secures a cup, a plate, anything that you want to make sure stays stable on a tray or a table- it will actually do the magic for you.”
In this five minute interview segment, which you can listen to in full here, they also discuss products such as the reel material, as well as our non-slip cup holders and mats.
Yellow cup holder prevents slips and spills
Dycem product application ideas taken from the interview;
For those with blindness or partial vision, a glass of water on a surface can be difficult to see and potentially dangerous if knocked over. Using a Dycem cup holder will not only provide a visual cue, it will also hold your glass in place securely.
A non-slip mat is perfect for use on a TV tray, as it holds to both the tray and the underside of your plate.
A roll of our reel material can be easily cut to size using just normal household scissors. You could even cut a thin piece of reel material and attach it to a door handle- to provide a visual cue and stable gripping surface.
Our non-slip range comes in highly visible colours such as red and yellow. You can also buy products in forest green, lime, pink, silver, blue, black and white, which gives you plenty of options for tying Dycem in with the rest of your home’s décor.
Dycem non-slip does not feel sticky to the touch, despite its very non-slip properties. This means that if you’re blind or partially sighted, you don’t have to worry about objects actually sticking to the non-slip material and therefore making objects difficult to pick up and use.
To clean any of our non-slip products, simply wash with warm, soapy water, leave it to dry and your Dycem will be as good as new. Alternatively, use one of our Dycem cleaning wipes for instant clean and reuse.
To see the rest of our Dycem range, check out the Dycem shop.
And if you have any thoughts on the benefits of Dycem for the blind or partially sighted, share with us your comments.
As we warm up for the 2015 season of events and conferences, we look back on the APTA Expo held in Indianapolis in February.
Over the three-day event, we met a staggering number of Physical Therapists and healthcare professionals who use Dycem every single day in their work. And boy do they have a lot of great things to say about it!
In fact, we were so impressed by the attendees’ enthusiasm for our products; we decided to make a record of all of their feedback.
Here for you now is a selection of the many different ways PT’s use Dycem in therapeutic settings.
Dycem on Skin
“I use Dycem for upper extremity amputations. It enables clients to grip devices with one hand and allows them to be more functional throughout the day.” – Beth Tapas
“During my clinic, I used Dycem for manual skills and I used Dycem to help with arm manipulations.” – Jeff
“I use Dycem to help adhere to the tissue for Myofascial release. I recommend using it to help save your hand.” – Kenny Spine
“I use Dycem for scar tissue massage.” – Katherine
“I use it is for soft tissue mobilisation for breast cancer care post operation patients.”– Mary Rosenberg
“I use Dycem to do scar massage, in particular on abdominal scars. I give patients a small piece of it and instruct them on how to mobilise the skin and the scar in that area, and it works great.” -Beth Shelly
“It is particularly useful for Axillary web syndrome, where Dycem provides a nice extra tissue stretch.” – Chris
“I use Dycem for scar mobility and joint mobility.”– Jeremy Baxter
“I use Dycem for ankle mobilisations and to grip parts of the body which are hard to hold onto, when I’m doing manual therapy.” -Tania Brode
“I had a patient who didn’t have any control over her extremities, and I’d use Dycem on her lap to help stabilise her arms.”– Nicole
Dycem in the PT Clinic
“I use Dycem to help train clients to balance and I use it as a marker on the floor for patients to walk in tandem gait” -Michael
“I use Dycem to keep hold of patients when mobilising, providing excellent grip for hard to hold onto areas.”
“I use Dycem on parallel bars to improve grip and provide visual targets for where my patients’ hands need to be.”- Katie
“I’ve seen Dycem being placed under a sliding board and transferring patients from bed to beside commode.”- Ann Cooper
“We use Dycem all the time to put it under our wobble board and foam when we’re doing balance activities, so people don’t slide and fall.” – Amy
“In my first clinic, I had a patient who literally couldn’t get out of bed without Dycem on the ground, to prevent his feet from going out in front of him.” – Mike
“We use it to help stabilise lower extremity bikes.” – Crystal Hollands
“We use Dycem for a variety of things, including preventing platform steps from sliding on the floor.” – Erin
“I use it when we are doing upper extremity weight baring exercise, when we need their hand to stay in place, without slipping off.”– Loraine Steef
“I use Dycem products in the clinic and they are wonderful products particularly for sensory input.”
“I use Dycem on the arms of a treadmill.”
“I would use Dycem as a mat on a person’s rollator” – Sue Hern
“I use Dycem to keep clients seated on a hand powered bike.”- Ann
“I use Dycem with stroke patients for holding a ball, so it doesn’t escape while the patient’s hand is still on it.”- Rebecca Lusas
“I cut Dycem into footprint shapes, for client stair exercises.” – Todd Sanders
CNN analyst, Miles O’Brien, suffered an accident which left him with the use of one-arm highlighted how he uses Dycem in the CNN special report “Miles O’Brien: A Life Lost and Found”.
In the report Miles tells the story of his accident and recovery, revealing how he had to relearn to carryout everyday tasks with his prosthetic arm. Miles first heard of Dycem when someone contacted him telling him “you’ve got to get Dycem”. Miles shows how Dycem is “really useful for a lot of things” and demonstrates opening a jar one-handed on a Dycem Non-Slip Mat:
If I try to open that jar (tries to open on kitchen worktop), it’s going nowhere, but on this (Dycem Non-Slip Mat), it works! So that’s really useful for a lot of things.
It’s sticky on both sides, it never loses its stick.
The powerful documentary features some great milestones with Miles learning to run again, completing a 300 mile charity bike ride & flying a plane.
We thank Miles for sharing his story and thoroughly recommend watching the YouTube video below.
There are over 200 different types of Arthritis, and today we will be going over the most common types of Arthritis that people may suffer from.
Osteoarthritis is by far the most common form of Arthritis in the world. It is estimated that 9.6% of men and 18% of women worldwide will have arthritis by the time that they are 60. For around 25% of sufferers, it is debilitating to the point where they struggle to carry out important daily activities.
It is caused by daily wear and tear on the joints over time not being fully repaired by the body, leading to lost cartilage, bony growths and inflammation.
Causes
Osteoarthritis can have many different causes, it can affect otherwise healthy people who have had a joint injury and not let it heal properly before exercising again. Previous health issues such as Gout can also be a contributory factor as well as obesity as it puts extra stress on the joints.
Rheumatoid arthritis is far less common than Osteoarthritis, however it still affects more than 400,000 people in the UK alone. Unlike Osteoarthritis, Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune condition where the body’s own immune system attacks the joints. The condition leads to painful swelling of the joints, and can even lead to the body attacking it’s own cartilage and bone, leading to the breakdown of both.
Most commonly, it is the hands, feet and wrists that are affected. However, it can strike elsewhere in the body. Rheumatoid arthritis often gets worse over time and 50% of people suffering from the condition are often unable to hold down a full time job after 10 years. However, if treatment is started early enough in the progression of the condition then people can go many years without any serious flare-ups.
Causes
As Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune condition, it is not known what actually triggers the process to start. However, it is thought that some people are genetically more likely to get it and it has a higher prevalence among smokers. Statistically women are also three times more likely to suffer from Rheumatoid arthritis.
Gout is caused by high levels of Uric Acid in the bloodstream becoming crystallized and causing inflammation, most commonly in the big toe. Gout is most common in developed countries, affecting 1% – 2% of people due to risk factors such as diet. Historically, it was known as a rich man’s disease as poor people were not able to consume a diet rich enough in food products that are known to lead to Gout such as sugary foods, alcohol, meat and seafood.
Genetics can also make people prone to Gout as some people are known to produce more Uric Acid (up to 60%) than others, although steps can be taken to reduce production of Uric Acid through lifestyle changes such as a restricted diet, drinking plenty of water, reducing alcohol consumption and getting more exercise.
Dycem Ltd, a market leader in non-slip technology, has launched a range of non-slip cup holders, designed to grip all drinking vessels firmly in place.
The unique product fits snugly onto the bottom of a cup, mug or tumbler, preventing unwanted movement, sliding and/or spillage.
In addition, Dycem’s cup holders will protect furniture from hot drinks, and minimize chances of knocking liquid over important documents by providing an unbeatable grip on a range of surfaces. The non-slip material has been proven to grip items in place up to a 45-degree angle.
Available in blue, yellow, lime, red and black the cup holder is long lasting and easy to clean. It also has antimicrobial properties ensuring utmost cleanliness and hygienic standards.
The newly launched product has been developed to complement Dycem’s existing range of non-slip products which include mats, jar and bottle openers, reel material (which can be cut to size) and netting.
All Dycem products are non-toxic, latex free, and washable in warm soapy water.
At Dycem, we are always looking for interesting ways in which our products can be used, especially in the field of therapy. Below is an interesting use for Dycem Reels from the Physical Therapist Diane Jacobs.
In the image, the practitioner uses small squares of Dycem material under his forearms to stretch the skin gently up and down the back of the model’s leg, while simultaneously lifting skin on the medial side of the knee, where there is cutaneous innervation by the obturator nerve.
Skin stretch is thought to provide the nervous system with movement illusion via skin receptors known as Ruffini endings (Collins and Gandevia 2005), while moving the cutaneous receptive field of any nerve may stimulate nerves physically, as well as physiologically, to help them restore better function and reduce pain felt by the patient. This treatment approach is known as Dermoneuromodulation.
Using Dycem in this manner saves much wear and tear on manual therapists, and is more comfortable for the patient because much less force is needed to elongate skin. The ease with which the substance can be cleaned between patients or clients with ordinary soap and water is a big plus! It’s durability is an added bonus.
F. Collins, K. M. Refshauge, G. Todd, S. C. Gandevia; Cutaneous Receptors Contribute to Kinesthesia at the Index Finger, Elbow, and Knee. J Neurophysiol 94: 1699 –1706, 2005
