Idea

Simplified foot care for the elderly

Image credit: Lolopiani peel

Darko Savic Sep 10, 2021

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Simplified foot care for the elderly - overnight plastic socks filled with antifungal and moisturizing gel. 

Why?

Foot care is an important aspect of general health but is likely to become neglected with increasing age. Several factors hinder the ability of the elderly to take better care of their feet. 
physical inability to bend down, apply creams, scrub
not seeking professional help, assuming that the changes are normal in old age
being overburdened by other medical problems and thus neglecting the less important ones
How it works

30 universal sized, foot-shaped plastic bags are pre-filled with antifungal/antimicrobial and moisturizing gel. They are easy to put on, tighten at the top, worn overnight, and discarded in the morning. A fresh pair is worn overnight for 30 consecutive nights to complete the therapy.

Gifting an elderly a box of the proposed foot care achieves several things. Gifting people cosmetics is considered normal. This also qualifies as cosmetics because it has dual purpose (moisturizing and yeast removal). You thereby avoid having the unpleasant "hey grandma, you have foot and nail fungus" or "grandpa, your feet smell" talk. The instructions provided in the packaging take care of the education part. They show images of toenail fungus, athletes foot, dry cracked skin, and any other usual problems.

This idea achieves at least 2 things:
simplifies foot care for elderly
makes it easy for caregivers to slip the treatment in without having an awkward talk that could offend people

[1]Miikkola, Maija et al. “Challenges of foot self-care in older people: a qualitative focus-group study.” Journal of foot and ankle research vol. 12 5. 18 Jan. 2019, doi:10.1186/s13047-019-0315-4

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Creative contributions

Bath socks for everyone

Michaela D Sep 28, 2021

I find these bath socks a wonderful idea, and not just for the elderly! 
They can offer the medicinal benefits of a warm foot bath in a more practical format. You can wear socks while laying in bed, for example, or sitting on the couch, without splashing water around.

They can have many different uses- just like a warm foot bath. 
1) Relaxation and soothing with warm water.
2) Moisturizing with the addition of known moisturizing ingredients.
3) Improvement of microcirculation . This is especially important for people with circulation problems such as the elderly or people with underlying conditions.
4) Pain relief . Especially for people suffering from peripheral neuropathy (caused by diabetes, for example).

Also, these socks can either come pre-filled or you can fill them up after diluting a powder in water. There would be different types of powder depending on the use. This way the socks would take up less space and would be easier to transfer.

[1]Ren W, Xu L, Zheng X, Pu F, Li D, Fan Y. Effect of different thermal stimuli on improving microcirculation in the contralateral foot. Biomed Eng Online. 2021 Feb 2;20(1):14. doi: 10.1186/s12938-021-00849-9. PMID: 33531012; PMCID: PMC7856788.

[2]“Evaluation of the Efficacy of Warm Salt Water Foot-Bath on Patients with Painful Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy: A Randomized Clinical Trial.” Complementary Therapies in Medicine 49:102325. doi: 10.1016/j.ctim.2020.102325.