5 Ways A Shower Chair Takes Pressure Off Family Members

A shower chair mobility system can reduce the amount of manual transfers required, especially a system like Showerbuddy Transfer range where the bridge across the edge of the bath or shower is used to move the user. The awkward shifting of body weight with a manual transfer into a wet shower environment is understandably fraught with risk of slipping, so having fixed equipment securely in place to take care of this movement is a big benefit.

Manual transfers also extend to moving between the shower and the toilet. When mobility is reduced, family members may need to assist their loved one with getting onto a raised toilet seat. While possible, carrying a slippery person onto a toilet seat isn’t easy. By having equipment that allows the user to remain seated (and fastened with safety belts), this risk is greatly mitigated.

And before even entering the bathroom, a full mobility system can enable family members to transfer their loved one from a bed or couch in a dry, safe environment, and remain seated when entering the bathroom and conducting bathing and toileting activities. This is one of the benefits of the transfer range.

Shower chairs make for a more efficient bathing process, with the reduction on manual transfer, but less reliance upon personal stability or careful bathing.

A shower chair that keeps the user in place securely will let the family member bathe their loved one quickly – or, if the individual themselves is able to safely handle a shower nozzle, they can even bathe themselves and regain that all-important independence in the bathroom. This frees up family members to prepare clothing, tidy up and do other tasks.

 

Finding time back in the day is something that any family who navigates a mobility challenge will appreciate. Helping our loved ones demands a tight schedule and it can be hard to find the time to do other things on some days. Any assistive technology that can create more time is worth investigating. A good shower chair is a great example of this.

The shower chair will help the morning (or evening) bathroom routine flow a lot easier.

In our engagement with families who have a disabled family member, one of the prevailing themes we hear is the desire for empowering their loved one to be more independent in their daily lives.

The bathroom is when this independence or lack thereof is often felt the most with using the toilet and bathing both very private daily activities. No matter what level of impairment, we believe that everyone deserves as much freedom and independence in the bathroom as possible. Shower chairs can provide some support to enable more of this independence, even if a family member is nearby.

 

For some families, this independence actually makes the bathroom routine largely hands off, putting less physical demand on the family member who may be better to use that energy for other tasks around the home.

It may be that one family member is the only one that physically can carry and support their mobility impaired loved one.

But when sophisticated bathroom transfer equipment is introduced, there is not the same demand of strength for much of the process. This means that if appropriate, families can share tasks between them, reducing the expectation on one person. This is a really beneficial aspect of a good bathroom transfer system – support can be shared. Or for a couple where there’s a heavier mobility impaired person being cared for by a lighter partner, equipment helps many tasks. It may be that in-home care is in place for the heavy lifting, with family members providing other, less strenuous care.