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I bought a transfer bench for my Mom to take a shower. The shower is a full bathtub/shower combination. She was sitting on the side of the tub and swinging her legs in, then standing, but we're hoping she can sit and shower, now.

I have the bench in the tub with it right under the shower head and I realized that I don't quite know how to arrange the shower curtain.

With the transfer bench, there, I can't pull the shower curtain along the tub to keep the water in as we did when Mom just took a shower.

Or, to soak it up from the floor? Or, whatever ideas you have on this are helpful.

Before someone suggests a fancy bathtub, this is what we can afford AND we need something, right now for her. So, waiting to install a fancy tub isn't ideal plus there's just not the money for something like that.

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It's a lot easier with a hand-held shower. The patient can control the spray direction. Take a scissors and slit the vinyl curtain to make a "door" that folds up where the bench is and will drop back down for other users.
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Hand held shower head is the only way to go. No shower curtain is how it was done by the professional bather that came to the house.
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She can't use the hand-held. We do have one shower with the type of head with a hose that you take down. But she tried it and it doesn't work well for her. It's partly because reaching all over with it makes her feel dizzy. But she also has so little strength in her arms that she has a hard time handling it. She really needs to sit and have very little in her hands to manage her own bath.
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I have to wonder...if she hasn't the strength to hold a hand held shower and reaching all over makes her dizzy,, is she really managing to wash herself all over? She may be at the point where she needs assistance showering. Nevertheless, you can buy a suction type attachment to put on the shower wall that will hold the hand-held shower at a lower height. You could position it so that it aims at her lower chest or lap so a shower curtain wouldn't be necessary. I purchased this attachment, along with 2 suction hand bars for stability, for my sister.
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We have a transfer chair...we closed the curtain and cut slits where the bars are, now once my dad is in he can close the shower and put the flap in between. When my mom uses it I am helping her so we don't close it.
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We have a large transfer bench, because my late father was a large man. One set of legs sits on the outside of the tub, the other on the inside of the tub. This presens a bit of a problem when it comes to a shower curtain.

One solution is to cut the shower curtain so that a portion of it slips down between the crack in the transfer bench into the tub, with the remaining portion hanging normally. (Hope that makes sense.) This may allow a small amount of water to hit the floor, but not much.

The other solution, and the one that we use, is to simply bunch the shower curtain liner up and kind of stuff it into the crack on the transfer bench - no water hits the floor - ever. Mom *does* use a hand shower, but I use the same shower and use the shower head mounted to the wall - either way, no water gets on the floor. But then again, mom does not need assistance showering at this point.
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Thanks. I didn't even think about cutting the shower curtain. I hope I don't sound to dim, but it just didn't occur to me. I've been bunching it and not getting as much water as I thought (that, or Mom is carefully wiping it off the floor).

Also, now that we've had the transfer bench for awhile, Mom loves it, plus her occupational therapist thinks it's the right choice for her, so we really do want to make it work in every way possible. It allows her to shower 100% independently. It took a visit to the occupational therapist to get it out of her how she washes her bottom as she doesn't like to talk about it, but she kind of scootches around and pushes her butt up a little by grabbing her bench.
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Glad I could help! I just set up Mom's new shower chair today, with both sets of legs inside the tub - so glad to have the shower curtain hanging normally again.

I know the whole story about washing while sitting on a shower chair/bench - it's not easy, especially if they are a larger person or unable to reach to clean "parts" due to disability. Mom doesn't do as good a job as she should and won't let me help (thus my occasional posts/rants about odor), and quite often, I have to clean up the shower chair *after* her shower. I keep trying to get her to understand there's nothing wrong with letting me help her get those areas clean so she doesn't get an infection or sores, but she still won't let me. I know it's a pride/dignity thing...just wish she'd let me help her so she would be cleaner. I did have to finally bring a towel out of the bathroom and show her the unpleasant remains on the towel from her getting out of the tub and sitting on a towel on the closed toilet seat to dry off. She was folding those towels up and putting them back on the shelf...which led to me grabbing the next available towel to dry off when I took my own shower - and finding myself face-to-face with the nastiness left on the towel where she sat on it. Thankfully, she's still coherent and alert enough to understand why I had a problem with that, and now she puts her towels - all of them - into the clothes hamper when she's done.
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My mom won't let me help her, either. For the first few showers, she insisted on doing everything herself, couldn't quite figure out the "fancy" plumbing (we have the single knob for hot/cold, not a separate hot and cold like she had) and ended up with a cold shower, each time. She finally gave in a tiny bit and let me show her how to get the water the right temperature. I shouldn't laugh, but I knew when she was showering, even though she was a bit stealthy about it, because I'd hear a loud yelp when the cold water hit her, plus she'd look so surly the next time I'd see her, as well as her griping that "these modern houses don't even have hot running water!!!"
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I got a great shower bench from Home Depot for a bathtub. We don't have the money to renovate the bathroom for a handicap person. Mom is able to sit on the bench and I help her get her legs over the side of the tub. I use 5 towels every time she bathes. One goes on the bench because she says it feels cold, 3 go on the floor next to the tub because no matter what I do she gets water on the floor and the 5th one she actually uses to dry.I have so much laundry to do anyway whats 5 more towels as long as she is clean.
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Bench Buddy Shower Curtain
Patented slit design keeps water inside the tub for maximum safety from slips and falls
amazon/gp/product/B00519S3HM/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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Ok I feel like an oddball here. I just hung another shower curtain like drapes, pull together and haven't had an issue.
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Bench buddy shower curtain, what a great idea! But, we are past that, I have to monitor showers and baths for mom and her hubby. Mom takes a bath, at least for now is still able to get in and out of big Jacuzzi tub, but don't know how much longer. I got her an elevator type chair after and had problems getting out last year. Her hubby takes a shower that I need to stand by for. He had hip replacement that has impacted his strength. His problem would be sliding the seat into the shower by himself, to say nothing of forgetting to rinse shampoo out so he can open his eyes before he stands up. He gets very dizzy standing with eyes shut and would fall very easily.
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Bench buddy shower curtain?!?!?! It just goes to show that whatever you need, if you wait long enough and have the money for it, you can find it. Good to know about for when I next need to buy a shower curtain.
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Hi! I would like to share this great online resource for anyone seeking a transfer chair : medicalexpo
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daughterdeb, don't feel like an oddball! I have been thinking the 2 shower curtain thing since the first post. Just makes sense to me. Get 2 shower curtain liners and put up , one on each side. That way if you want a nice pretty curtain in front the others ( inside tub) the bathroom looks like nothing is any different.
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You may need a double curtain bar for this but tension rods are fairly cheap & come in all sorts of colors.
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go to dollar tree and get 4 or 5 car shimmy's roll it up at edge of floor these things absorbe a lot of water ,ring it out and dries guickly
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Start with curtain in tub behind the transfer bench now pull it over the bench keeping it inward so that the curtain is in the tub behind the bench and as it comes up and over the bench it the bottom excess will be folded in towards the person and then it drops back down in the tub. When inside you will see how the water will run down curtain into tub or towards the person. Now when you get ready to open curtain take care to notice any pooled water (usually a small amt) on the folded area. Slowly open from the front again keeping shower curtain inward and at folded bench area jiggle water off and then push curtain behind you staying in the tub. I teach people how to do this all the time and the floor will stay 100% dry if done right.
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Bench buddy shower curtain works fine if you what the bench in the center of your tub but I want mine somewhere else. Also it looks like the slits could be too long or short. I like my solution better.
Get a solid color shower curtain ( I used a medium weight white one from Wal-Mart). I like it because it has magnates, suction cups and medal gourmets.
Also get a 3/4 inch sticky back roll of Velcro at least 2 times the length of shower curtain.
Assuming the shower head, hand held or water spiked is mounted on the side of the shower(shower head wall), and the other side of the shower is the back wall. Measure the distance between the shower head wall and the first bench rail, the distance between the rails and the 2nd bench rail and the back wall.
Now here is the tricky part. You need to cut the shower curtain into 3 panels. The first panel (panel A) goes between the shower wall and the first rail. The second panel (panel B) goes between the rails and the 3rd panel (panel C) goes between the 2nd rail and the back wall.
Now using proportions and assuring that you don't cut through a medal gourmet calculate the length of each panel such that panel A over laps panel B by 1 inch plus the width of the Velcro (1 3/4 inch in my case). Also make sure that the overlap is not covering a gourmet and each panel has at least 2 gourmets. Panel B needs to overlap panel C by 1 inch plus the width of the Velcro also.
Once the panels are cut attach (using the sticky side of) one side of the Velcro on the outside of panel A offset from the edge by 1 inch on the entire length of the panel. On shower head side of Panel B attach the other side of the Velcro on the inside panel B edge (you can overlap the shower head edge of Panel B if you want but I have found that this makes fixing the Velcro more difficult). On the back wall edge of panel B, attach one side of the Velcro on the outside of panel B offset from the edge by 1 inch. On the shower head side of panel C attach the other side of the Velcro to the panel C edge.
To install hang panel A and B and press the Velcro together the length of the curtain. do the same for panel B and C.
To use , undo the Velcro on panel B a couple of inches above the bench rails. Put panel B between the rails and pull it down with a slight tension. Refasten the Velcro being sure to press the area just above and below the rails securely. Adjust the curtain as necessary.
To remove panel B and move the curtain to the side grasp the curtain and jerk up with enough force to undo the Velcro under the rails.
One other fact that I have also found helpful is to set the outside of the bench slightly higher than the inside so that the water that gets on the rails runs inside the shower and not outside the shower.
I haven't tested this method with a non circular rail but I think it will perform much better than the Bench Buddy would in these cases.
If you need more width feel free to use more than one shower curtain.
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Invacare Bench Buddy Shower curtain
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Over $150 for a curtain with two slits in it CanadaNadine?
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