Edinburgh Care Home Review the S'up Spoon

Some of you may remember, but a while back we heard about the S’up Spoon on bespoken. The S’up Spoon is a new design of spoon which seeks to aid people with tremors, cerebral palsy and other disabilities which may impede independent eating. The design of the spoon was created with a more ergonomic handle and a deeper ‘bowl’ at the end to make it easier for people who spill their food while eating. When we heard about it we contacted the manufacturers and asked to help them with the trial stages of the design. The spoon was used by staff and two service-users at Tiphereth, an Edinburgh-based care home and day centre for adults with learning disabilities.

One of the service-users has disabilities which cause his hands to shake when he eats and he often has trouble getting food onto the spoon. He did not feel the spoon helped him as he felt the bowl was too deep and food could get stuck in it as a result and therefore prefers to use a regular spoon with a soft, angled handle. He tried the S’up Spoon with pizza and pasta (chopped up before), but believes it would perhaps be appropriate for soup.

The second service-user is non-verbal and often requires full assistance in eating and therefore it was the staff that helped to feed her who told us about their use of the spoon. While the staff said they like the ergonomic feel of the spoon’s handle and its contemporary design, they also stated that there were some issues when using it to feed. The main issue was that the shape of the spoon meant having to angle it awkwardly in order to get the food into her mouth and this could mean sitting directly in front of her while feeding her which was a bit intimidating. However, it’s also worth noting that the main purpose of the S’up Spoon is to enable the person to eat independently and avoid having to be assisted and so this last criticism is perhaps unfair to the intention of the spoon’s design.

For both the people who used it was felt that a larger rim would be beneficial as it would allow for them to use the S’up Spoon as they would a normal one (rather than the lift and pour technique they had to use), while retaining the bowl-like design, which they liked and stated was helpful in reducing spillage.

Edinburgh Care Home Review the S'up Spoon

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