Therapeutic blankets created and designed for local hospital patients

St. Clair College fashion design students designed and created fidget blankets to help senior patients keep busy while in the hospital. (Source: Windsor Regional Hospital)

A group of fashion design students have created 25 fidget blankets to help senior patients keep busy while in the hospital — but what’s a fidget blanket?

The blankets are lap sized quilts that offer sensory and tactile stimulator for the restless hands of those with Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia, Windsor Regional Hospital (WRH) officials say. The blankets have items like zippers, buttons, fur, and pockets sewn on them.

The quilts help to ease boredom and offer a calming effect through repetitive motion.

“The students are upcycling donated fabrics and notions from the community,” St. Clair College fashion design program professor Elaine Chatwood said in a news release. “The project is a perfect example of circular design, by utilizing supplies that would have ended up in a landfill.”

According to WRH officials, the college’s fashion design students have a long history of helping out patients. Students have created and donated items like designer PJs for toddlers, hospital gowns for patients and 640 fabric masks that were used during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This time, 30 students took on the fidget blanket project.

"I believe this is the third project our Fashion Design faculty and students have carried out in partnership with Windsor Regional Hospital. In the past, they've created gowns for those undergoing MRI exams, and cloth face masks for staff during the pandemic,” St. Clair College president Patti France said. “These fidget blankets are just the latest example of this unique and mutually beneficial relationship between our local educational and healthcare institutions. I hope this serves as a message to the whole community: that if you think that any of the programs at St. Clair might be able to help your organization, get in touch with us."

The fidget blankets will be given out to appropriate patients in the coming months.