An interview with Nancy McGovern, Visionary and Founder of Comfort Linen ~ Retired Physiotherapist on October 19, 2023 by George Ackerman, Ph.D, J.D.
Biography
As a movement specialist, I enjoyed a long and rewarding career of providing patient care in hospitals, care facilities and clinics. Eventually, I drew on this experience to develop programs that would make the work of patient handling lifts, transfers and repositioning safer and easier for caregivers. My primary interest related to how we move in bed, and how we assist others to move. It became my mission to develop a new concept for bed sheets and sleepwear – one that systematically enables repositioning with less effort and greater independence. With benefits to both individuals and their careers, Comfort Linen’s sleep system represents the goals I always strived to meet throughout my career – to relieve pain, improve functional mobility, prevent complications and injuries, and contribute to overall health and wellness. Hearing from users about how Comfort Linen has positively changed their lives provides the motivation and inspiration to share this innovation with others.
Can you tell me more about your advocacy?
Though I have been an advocate for people with a wide variety of mobility-limiting conditions, it is the community of people with Parkinson’s disease that I have become most familiar with since introducing Comfort Linen. Because moving in and out of bed, turning side to side and shifting for comfort can be very difficult, if not impossible, for many people with PD, it is this group that has strongly embraced Comfort Linen as an effective solution to their nightly struggle. Comfort Linen donates all returned products, new and unused, to organizations related to serving people with Parkinson’s disease. Additionally, we have provided educational material and samples to help inform specialists at movement disorder clinics, rehab professionals, support groups, and family members.
What is your passion and how did you get involved in Parkinson’s awareness and hope for a cure?
My passion is the ability to enable individuals with Parkinson’s to move with greater ease in the bed outfitted with Comfort Linen. This can lead to improved quality of sleep that is essential for overall health and daily functioning. Spouses also report sleeping better because their partner can rest more peacefully. When the “dread of bed” becomes “best of rest”, I am inspired to keep educating and spreading the word about this innovation that addresses the problems related to immobility and frictional resistance when repositioning in bed.
What type of goals do individuals with Parkinson’s have when seeing your advocacy?
Goals generally center around getting better quality sleep and regaining the ability to move and with greater ease and independence including getting into bed, getting out of bed, shifting, and turning side to side. By being able to move more naturally, with less struggle and frustration, many people with PD report that their sleep is less interrupted – that getting up to use the bathroom doesn’t take as long and with the ease of moving in and out of bed, many find it easier to fall back asleep.
What type of training and how long are the programs?
The beautiful thing about Comfort Linen is its simplicity of design and usage. By simply substituting our fitted bed sheet for the usual bed sheet, and wearing Comfort Linen’s sleep garment, a surprising and quite incredible experience will result. We are all accustomed to coping with frictional resistance every time we move in bed – however, we seldom think of this annoyance. In health, it is relatively easy to overcome. However, when affected by mobility-limiting conditions such as Parkinson’s, stroke, painful arthritis, injury, surgery, aging and more – repositioning can become a dreaded task. Using Comfort Linen virtually eliminates the friction that resists our every move. The ability to move with greater ease can be of enormous benefit to both individuals and their careers.
What effect can your advocacy have on an individual with Parkinson’s?
This can be best answered from users of Comfort Linen who have Parkinson’s disease. Here are a few of their comments:
- It works!
- This is a game-changer!
- I want to tell others that this is the best Parkinson’s aid ever!
- My spouse without PD loves it too – we are both sleeping better!
- My elderly mother can change position herself now, so I am sleeping better and without interruption!
- It’s easier for me to help my partner get in and out of bed – it’s been a godsend!
- I don’t know what I would do without Comfort Linen.
- It’s life-changing!
To provide relief and restoration of functional bed mobility is personally highly rewarding. It is a labor of love and one that I cannot stop doing because I believe in the goodness that can result.
What would you like to see as a future goal for your advocacy?
One of our goals is to continue informing Parkinson’s groups and organizations of the difference in effectiveness between Comfort Linen’s design and the use of regular satin sheets and PJ’s. This latter approach is the standard recommendation on the Resources Page of most PD related websites. Unfortunately, it is less than effective and further, can pose the hazard of slipping off the side. We are very pleased, however, to be included in the Resources sections of the Davis Phinney Foundation, and more recently the MJ Fox Foundation too, with thanks to the connections made at World Parkinson’s Congress in Barcelona, Spain this past July.
What events do you participate in?
We have participated in and attended as Exhibitors at the Portland 2016 and Barcelona 2023 World Parkinson’s Congress events. This month, October 2023, we participated in a Live Pitch Contest with the Carter Group JMRN based in Japan. The top winners benefit from the support of the esteemed Carter Group to enter the Japan market. As part of the Age-Tech and Living Best community, Comfort Linen aims to provide products to enable Japan’s vast aging population to live well despite having few caregivers relative to the need. In Japan, one-third of the population is over 65, or 36 million seniors! Comfort Linen is excited to have been chosen as the 2nd place winner in this international competition. We are preparing, with the help of this marketing group, to enter the Japan marketplace.
How does your advocacy also assist caregivers?
Caregivers benefit when the care recipient is enabled to move with less assistance – or better yet, with independence. There are adult children who sing the praises of our sleep system because they can see the comfort and relief it brings to their parents. We offer a positioning pad to use with those who need assistance – its use makes it easier, and therefore safer, for the carer. Manual bed repositioning is deemed a physically demanding and high-risk task for the development of strain and sprain injuries. It is so important to protect the caregiver from injury. Friction-reducing assistive products such as Comfort Linen can make a big difference.
How can someone get in touch? What is your website?
We would be happy to receive email messages at info@comfortlinen.com. Our website is www.comfortlinen.com.
How can others also become advocates for awareness?
One way to become an advocate is to read and learn about Parkinson’s disease – or to get involved in Parkinson’s groups. This in and of itself raises awareness of this disease’s effects and what treatments are available to manage the disease with the goal of extending wellness and slowing decline. Join the annual Walk for Parkinson’s awareness events that are held in most large communities. Become a member of your local Parkinson’s organization volunteer your time. Be part of the movement to keep moving!
If you could add any questions to this interview that you may want others to learn about, what would the question(s) be?
Though we rarely talk about the challenges of moving in bed, it is a real problem and one with few effective solutions. To get people thinking about this topic, I often like to pose the question – “what is the root cause of tossing and turning?” The most common responses are:
- It’s because we are restless
- Just trying to get comfortable
- Because we can’t get to sleep.
These responses relate to the question and reflect the feelings associated with a night of tossing and turning. However, the root cause of these uncomfortable conditions is friction! To overcome gravity and friction, a tossing action is needed to turn. When it becomes too physically difficult to toss, a quick upwards action, a person becomes immobile in bed. This can be extremely distressing and can be further complicated by the need to visit the bathroom during the night, sometimes multiple times. When repositioning is made easier through friction-managed bedding, life can become easier.
If you had one final statement or quote you could leave for the Parkinson’s community, what would it be?
Getting quality sleep is the foundation for health and wellness for everyone. It is especially important for people with Parkinson’s so that they can be more active participants in the activities and exercises that help manage this disease. Do your best to be open to innovation and change, and you can benefit from something good along with your partner, family, and carers. Please trust Comfort Linen – give it a chance and help make your life easier.