This guest blog is by Matteo Facciani, Product Specialist, Medimec International. Our Italian distributor Medimec facilitates the use of Jenx equipment throughout Italy; including Piccolo Cottolengo Don Orione!
Read on to learn how they use equipment like the Jenx Standz 2 to provide postural support for children in their care.
Piccolo Cottolengo Don Orione in Tortona (AL) was founded in 1940 during World War II, as shelter for orphan and disabled children by a Catholic congregation of nuns and priests.
The guiding principle has always been charity, helping everyone and not leaving anyone behind or alone, especially children who were for various reasons (physical, behavioural, social) at the borders of society.
Today, through the most modern medical and psycho-pedagogical methodologies, a vast team of doctors, physiotherapists and occupational therapists combines playful and recreational activities with therapeutic and rehabilitative programmes to ensure children with complex physical disability have a brighter future.
Jenx products have been integral in helping ensuring play and rehabilitation are one and the same for the children at Piccolo Cottolengo Don Orione. For example, in more recent times, physiotherapists are using, to great satisfaction, the Standz 2 with their little patients, supporting children with complex hip pathologies, spasticity and rare diseases.
A child at Piccolo Cottolengo using the Standz 2
The Standz 2 is a version of the Jenx Standz that offers abducted standing for a taller, larger or heavier user. Instead of just being a ‘scaled-up’ version of the Standz, it comes with new accessories for a new type of user, developed from expert clinical feedback. This means a greater range of patients can benefit from different types of standing.
By offering supine, prone and upright standing in an abducted leg position, the Standz 2 is a truly versatile product. It is therefore able to accommodate different children with different complex needs.
Standing equipment like the Standz 2 also enables children to be at eye level with their peers. The tray, shoulder protractors and elbow blocks on the Standz 2 help keep a user’s upper limbs towards midline which can also be important for play and interaction. This means that new opportunities for social activity and recreation can be achieved at the same time as therapeutic intervention.
Children are gaining huge psychological, physical and developmental benefits from the Standz 2!
This blog is part of our 40 stories for 40 years’ series, celebrating our partnerships over the years. Click here to read more blogs in this series.
