16 May 2019

Our new anti-ligature door handle, Suregrip:  designed with you in mind

Last year I wrote about my experience of gathering nationwide feedback to inform the design of our latest anti-ligature door handle.  We spent months on the road visiting experts by lived experience, clinical staff, architects, estates and capital teams and listening to the challenges of existing handles on the market. 

You told us that you wanted an anti-ligature door handle with better grip that was less institutional-looking - but one that didn't compromise on the robustness and durability of our existing handles.  So, based on your feedback, we designed Suregrip.

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Dragon Cafe, 2017


You spoke; we listened

One of the stops on our roadshow was the Dragon Cafe in London.  The Cafe is a project run by Mental Fight Club that offers inspirational creative events to people who experience mental ill health.  We presented a number of comparative anti-ligature handles, existing and new, and the experts by experience here told us that the existing handle designs didn't offer enough grip and weren't very comfortable to use.

handle-with-invisible-backplate-Handle_gripExisting alternatives such as pinch grip handles can provide limited grip due to the metal plate being positioned in the middle.  They were designed this way to be fully anti-ligature compliant and allow them to be installed on all doors, regardless of the direction the door swings in.  Building on these designs, Suregrip positions the plate over to the side, so there are still no ligature points, but a better grip is achieved. It can also be rotated 180º meaning it can still be installed on any door.

 

Suregrip-SHP

 
We also listened to the feedback that the amount of visible metal fixings could contribute to making the environment feel institutional.  Existing handles in Mental Health have a large metal back-plate for durability reasons; however, with some clever engineering, we've managed to retain the robustness of existing handles but with an invisible back-plate.

So - Suregrip is just as sturdy, but helps to create a more homely aesthetic.


Dragon Cafe - Surrgrip
Dragon Cafe, 2019

We recently returned to the Dragon Cafe with a sample of the finished design of Suregrip; and to our delight, it was very well received.  Everyone we spoke to commented on the ease of grip and the improvement on aesthetic - just as they had asked for in their initial feedback. 

Design in Mental Health Exhibition 2019

If you're heading to the upcoming Design in Mental Health Conference and Exhibition at the Ricoh Arena on 21 & 22 May, you'll find us on stand 202 where you can try out Suregrip for yourself.  We're also extremely proud to be sponsoring the Service User Engagement Award at the event in support of engaging with experts by lived experience to inform Mental Health design.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Picture of Max Szczerkowski

Max Szczerkowski
Product Design Engineer