Jane Thomasson

WHO AM I?

I am Jane Thomasson, founder of Errine Adaptive Clothing, previously working as a Registered Nurse for 21 years. After training and qualifying in Queensland, I travelled around Australia and the UK working in a variety of health care settings, eventually moving to Tasmania in 2004 where I now permanently reside.

As a nurse I witnessed the daily struggle people with a disability endured with getting dressed and undressed, often enduring pain and distress when trying to bend arms into sleeves, rotate shoulders or lift arms, fit small neck holes over heads, or get pants on and off.

For frail or disabled people this can be a daily battle, and I also found it upsetting to have to force clothes on people, for lack of a better option. Many people in care are wearing clothes two or three sizes too big just to make it easier to get them on and off - there goes their dignity! I felt there had to be a solution to this huge problem!

WHAT IS ADAPTIVE CLOTHING?

Adaptive clothing is clothing that is designed for people who have no or minimal mobility to be able to dress and undress easily. It functions a lot like a hospital gown in that it completely opens up at the back and is put on frontwards, doing up at the back.

Unlike hospital gowns, Errine Adaptive Clothing is designed to maintain dignity and looks just like regular clothing.  Errine styles do not look 'institutional' or 'clinical, and do not advertise the fact the clothing is 'different'. This provides people with clothing that does not make them feel uncomfortable or feel they look 'different'. 

The clothing is not only designed to accommodate medical and physical needs, it also provides comfortable clothing that people are happy to be see in, and reduces effort for carers with easy on easy off clothing they don't have to struggle with.

BUSINESS DETAILS

MISSION
Errine's mission is to positively change the lives of disabled persons and their carers through the design and manufacture of functional clothing. Errine clothing is designed to accommodate unique physical and medical needs, while remaining stylish, comfortable, and affordable.  We will work diligently to ensure Errine clothing assists in retaining the dignity and independence of the wearer, and reduces effort for carers.

VISION
Our vision is to provide people with a disability, regardless of their age, economic status or geographical location, with access to stylish, functional, comfortable, dignified and affordable clothing, that fully meets their physical requirements. We will continue working hard to remain the Australian market leader of specialist disability clothing, benchmarking high minimum standards of quality, service, and accessibility, for current and future providers.

ACHIEVEMENTS
Errine Adaptive Clothing is the only provider of disability clothing in Australia that has Centrelink approval, which allows us to provide easy payment options through Centrepay for people receiving Centrelink benefits.

Errine is currently having discussions with a major Australian not-for-profit organisation with a view to align both organisations for the benefit of the wider community; updates on the progress of these discussions will be posted as they occur.

The national clothing and textile magazine 'Ragtrader' featured an article on Errine Adaptive Clothing, unfortunately you have to be a subscriber to read the full article, but you can view the title and intro here

'Hospital & Aged Care' Magazine wrote two full page article on Errine Adaptive clothing, April 2011 (hard copy only available)

FUNDING

Your help will allow me to provide more styles to meet different needs. I receive many calls from carers desperate for specific types of clothing that I am not able to provide, and it upsets me because I know they have few or no other options available and will just continue to struggle every day.

All money raised will be used to take designs to manufacture, or develop new designs (based on customer feedback that I have been gathering since the business began).

I currently have over twenty designs ready to go, but manufacturing is certainly not cheap, and, as Errine does not operate on high profit margins (so people can afford the clothing), it takes a few thousand dollars just to have one style, in a few sizes, in two colours, made up.

The funding goal I have set will allow two of the designs to be manufactured in four different sizes (small, medium, large, XL) and in two colours. More funds would enable an additional colour or size, or a third style to be manufactured.

With our ageing population and the incidence of disability increasing (with the ageing population) the need is only going to get greater, and I for one hope that when I am elderly, or if I have a stroke or an accident (God forbid), and become unable to dress myself, that there is clothing available that will help me.

If you are unable to contribute funds, please help by spreading the word about the campaign. You can use the share tools on here to spread the word to your Facebook or Twitter followers, ask your friends, family, colleagues to support the campaign, or do a collection at work/church/club and contribute as a group.

However small you may think your contribution may be it will all help, and all support will be very much appreciated.