Stand, Sit, Climb, Floor Lift, and Bath Lowering Devices Buying Guide
Carrying Mom from the bed to the bathroom can hurt you both. It’s dangerous and awkward. It’s time for devices to help Mom get up, climb up, stand up and sit down
10 Ways to Safely Climb Stairs, Get Into the Bath, Get off the Floor, Walk, Sit and Stand
Use a transport device to get Mom from room to room within the home. Get the device measurements before buying. The right fit will keep Mom safe, and make your life 100x easier.
Best Shower Chairs for Seniors
The best shower chairs include a simple seat, one with arms, one with a back and arms, and a bench with a back and one arm.
What Kind of Shower Chair Works Best for Seniors?
Sometimes just standing is hard to do. It can cause back pain and leg aches. You should not put a household chair in a shower or tub. It will ruin the chair, and it might be unstable. The bathroom is the last place you want to introduce a falling hazard.
Use a Patient Transfer Device for Standing Assistance
A patient transport is a tall device on wheels that a caretaker uses to move the patient from place to place. It takes the place of a wheelchair as it is usually narrower and fits through doorways. In a transport, the patient stays relatively vertical, with a seat and kneepads to lean against. Some transports require that the user have some strength and stability to get onto the device, while others automate the lift with a hydraulic motor and sling.
How a Toilet Rail Helps You Sit and Stand in the Bathroom
A toilet rail is a metal frame surrounding the toilet that gives you stable arms to grasp and use for leverage when sitting down on or getting up from the toilet.
Best Soft Seat Stand-Assist Devices
The Stand a Roo and the CouchCane are both excellent devices to help you stand up from a soft cushioned seat or couch.
Best Hard Seat Stand-Assist Devices
I chose the Carex UpLift and the SitnStand devices as the best devices for help sitting down and standing up from a hard chair.
How a Couch Assist Helps You Stand Up from a Soft Chair or Couch
A couch assistance device gives you a set of arms to use for leverage when standing up. One type uses a loose cushion to hold it into place. Another type installs under a chair or couch leg. Both types give you a stable arm or two to use for leverage when standing up.
How a Seat Assist Helps You Stand Up from a Hard Chair
One type of gadget helps you to stand up from the couch, or cushioned chair. Another type of gadget helps you stand from a hard chair.
How a Lift Chair Helps You Sit Down and Stand Up
When you sit down on a lift chair, you bend your legs less than when sitting on a regular chair. When you stand up from a lift chair, you need less leg strength than you do getting up from a regular chair. So the lift chair offers both standing and sitting assistance. Lift chairs are also recliners. Some have massage and heat. Some are “wall huggers” that don’t require a ton of room in the back to recline. Some recline to a horizontal position, and some only to about 140 degrees.
Best Toilet Stand-Assist Devices for Mom
I definitely prefer the toilet frame design that sits on the floor, and not the one that sits on the toilet bowl under the seat. The floor variety is more stable. If you push down harder on one side than the other, the toilet prevents the frame from tilting over. The floor variety is also easier to clean because it’s not literally on the toilet bowl.
Best Patient Transfer Device
If the patient can pull herself up from a sitting position (or use a chair lift to do so) then the best budget patient transport is the Lumex Stand Assist. This is the transport device with the cushy built-in seat that moving up to a 400 lb. person relatively easy for the caregiver. If the patient cannot lift herself at all, or if you are picking up a patient on the floor, then the best choice is the Hi-Fortune Patient Lift. It includes the carrying sling, locking casters, and carries 450 lb.
Best Recliner Lift Chair
I want to show you my favorite recliner lift chairs, but there’s something we have to talk about first.
Do Not Buy a Recliner Lift Chair Before Reading This!
5 Reliable Devices that Help Someone to Stand Up (and one you should never use)
Now we have recliners called “lift chairs” that can transport you from sitting to standing up. We have cushions that expand as we get up to give us just enough push to stand up. We have sitting and standing assistance devices for couches, hard chairs, and toilets.