Step Exhibitions
Suregrip Ligature-Safe Handle by Safehinge Primera
Nominee Information
50% of suicides are attempted using ligature points below an inpatient’s head, often with door hinges or handles.
Suregrip, our anti-ligature door handle, is designed to prevent this ongoing issue in mental health spaces and add to the built environment without compromising safety.
Safehinge Primera has developed a robust customer feedback loop within its voice of the customer strategy where we constantly look to improve the functionality, durability and commerciality of all our products.
How did customer feedback inform the design of Suregrip?
The feedback from clinical staff and patients was that existing handles were institutional and did little to create a homely and welcoming environment. The clinical staff also indicated a need for a new handle that offered a better grip, ensuring practicality on a day-to-day basis.
One of the top desires of architects was to reduce (or even better remove) the negative aesthetic impact of the metal backplate used on our existing handles, like pinch grip, as this can also look and feel institutional. Yet, they still wanted to retain the robustness of the fixing.
From this valuable feedback, we developed several prototypes taking inspiration from handles in hotels to create various styles. We then shared these with the same forty people to ensure the product resonated positively with them. This group of people were of all different ages, heights, weights and genders to ensure the design met a wide range of needs. Based on their feedback, we designed Suregrip.
Max Szczerkowski, a product design engineer at Safehinge Primera, said: “Not only did I help design a product that supported staff and promoted patient recovery, but I also learned more about the challenges people face in mental health.
“Being a part of every stage of this project was a great reminder of why we do what we do at Safehinge Primera.”
Did you know a door’s swing determines which hand we use to operate it?
For convenience, Suregrip is designed to rotate 180º to ensure it can fit any door. This anti-ligature handle was developed to have an asymmetric design, providing the handle with double the grip. Our design incorporated this to meet the needs of clinical staff, who shared with us the importance of having a solid grip to access a room efficiently in an emergency without their hand slipping. For a therapeutic environment, and with some clever engineering, we’ve retained the robustness and durability of existing handles but with an invisible backplate. This design complements the environment and makes it less institutional for the patient.
Philip Ross, CEO & Co-founder at Safehinge Primera, shared: “The real sign that we’d ‘passed the test’ was an elderly woman with Parkinson’s, whose hand tremors made previous anti-ligature handles unusable, managed to get a solid grip on her first try with Suregrip.”
Suregrip proves that the small things can make a big difference. It’s not just a handle. It’s an anti-ligature door component with a strong grip that can blend into the built environment whilst preventing people from causing themselves harm.
