It was a few days back, late at night, when I picked up a comment on one of our BitePRO® Bite Resistant Clothing social media sites. The comment was made by a lady (to be identified here as ‘G’), who really seemed to struggle with the frequency of bite injuries she had suffered by her autistic daughter.
We engaged in a very brief conversation, and due to the late hours, I promised that a trusted colleague of mine would engage with her the following day, with the aim to help.
My colleague contacted ‘G’ next morning and asked if there is any way we can be of help. When we learned to understand the severity of the injuries and the distress ‘G’ was and clearly still is suffering from, we were determined to help. Financially, ‘G’ was unable to purchase any of our bite resistant clothing products, so a free sample of our bite resistant jackets was sent across to Ireland a couple of days later.
The response we have received is truly heart-warming:
“I just want to thank you so much. My daughter has severe non-verbal autism, she has learning disabilities, global developmental delay and has challenging behaviour, she takes most of her aggression out on me, as a result I have had some awful injuries. When she has a meltdown she is quite fast and has broken my teeth with a headbutt but she mainly goes for my chest and arms so I'm constantly sore, bruised, bitten and scratched, I've tried all usual suggestions, my daughter is on anti-psychotic medication but we have yet to find the right balance. I am currently on my knees with the change in routine as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, my daughter has regressed hugely and misses her school routine, no matter how hard you try home is not the same as school, she is aggressive day and night and I cannot take anymore biting and scratching. I shared my pictures with BitePRO® in the hope they had a product to help me and for other families who go through this so they know that there are products out there that can help protect them. I really appreciate your help and please thank everyone for me, you don't know how much it means.”
Unfortunately, as much as we would like to, we cannot send free samples across to everyone in order to help. But we are on the receiving end of countless incoming enquiries and questions via telephone, email or, in this case via social media.
We can see a real difference in such strong opinions on how people feel about our brand of scratch and bite resistant clothing. Some are actually appalled on a moral level that our protective products actually exist, stating their child is not a 'bad person'; something we would never ever thing in the first place. Some get carried away all together and cannot thing of anything else but ‘zombie attacks’ and post apocalyptic scenarios.
But then we hear from those who are suffering every day. Those who are at risk of being bitten every day they go to work. Health care professionals, special educational needs teachers, psychiatric social worker, care home professionals, loved ones and many others all seem to understand that what we do is a) ‘right’ and b) ‘good.’
We can only invite you to keep an open mind. See if we can help you to effectively protect yourself better from the risk of being bitten by a patient, service user, pupils, or someone else you love.
Please visit our online shop and please do get in touch.
Robert Kaiser, CEO
