If you are worried about a parent, the bathroom is usually where that worry starts. It is the one room none of us can avoid using every single day, usually with wet floors and a lot of sitting down and standing up.
Maybe your mum slipped getting out of the shower last week, or your dad mentioned he holds the towel rail to steady himself. You want to make the room safer, but you do not want to turn it into something that feels like a hospital. This guide walks through the bathroom one area at a time, so you know exactly what makes the biggest difference and what you can skip.
Written by Bianca, founder of SteadWell. Last updated 15 October 2026.
Start with the shower: a non-slip mat and a shower chair with arms, so your parent can wash sitting down. Then add a grab rail where they step in and out, and a raised toilet seat or toilet frame if standing up from the toilet is hard. None of these needs a plumber, and the suction rail needs no drilling.
The products in this guide
Today’s prices, with the number that decides the fit.
Want the shower sorted in one order? This set pairs a shower chair with a no-drill grab rail.
The shower in one order: Shower Chair and Grab Rail Set
Our 135 kg shower chair with arms and back, plus a no-drill suction rail for steadying yourself at the shower edge. See the pack.
Bathroom safety essentials at a glance
| Bathroom zone | The main risk | What helps most | From |
|---|---|---|---|
| The floor | Slipping on wet tiles | A non-slip shower mat | $72 |
| The shower | Standing and bending on a wet surface | A shower chair or stool | $70 |
| The toilet | Struggling to sit down and stand up | A raised toilet seat or over-toilet frame | $80 |
| Getting in and out | Losing balance at the step or bath edge | A well-placed grab rail | $47 |
Every bathroom aid in our range has to pass the same checklist before it earns a place: a clearly stated weight capacity, non-slip feet or a secure grip, simple setup with no tools wherever possible, dispatch from an Australian warehouse, and the build quality we would want for our own family. The picks here are chosen on that basis by our founder, Bianca, not on what earns us the most.
Start with the floor, because every trip crosses it
Before you buy anything, look down. A wet tiled floor is the one risk every trip to the bathroom crosses, and it is also the cheapest thing to fix. A good non-slip mat inside the shower or bath gives the feet something to grip on the surface that gets most slippery. A second non-slip mat on the floor outside catches the drips that cause a slip the moment someone steps out.
While you are there, clear the floor. Loose towels, a bunched-up bath mat, a basket of cleaning bottles. These are the small trip hazards that do real damage. You will find non-slip mats and other simple home aids in our daily living range.
It is the one thing every bathroom trip crosses, it gets wetter than anywhere else in the house, and it is the easiest part of the room to make safer in an afternoon.
Make the shower a place they can trust again
The shower is where confidence is won or lost. Two things change it completely. The first is something solid to hold. A proper grab rail fixed beside the shower entry gives a firm point to steady against when stepping over the lip and turning around. A towel rail is not a grab rail and will not hold a person's weight, so this is worth doing properly.
The second is somewhere to sit. A shower chair with arms lets your parent wash sitting down, which removes the two riskiest moments: standing on a wet surface and bending to reach the feet. The arms give something firm to push up from when they are ready to stand. For a smaller shower recess, a backless stool does the same job in less space. Both, along with handheld shower heads that make sitting down practical, sit in our bathroom independence range.
The safest bathroom is the one they can use the same way they always have, just with something solid to hold and somewhere to sit.
For most people, a shower chair with arms is the better choice over a backless stool. It costs a little more, but the back support and the arms make a genuine difference to how secure it feels, and that is the whole point. For the specific models, our guide to the best shower chairs for elderly Australians names the best one for each situation.
If they still use the bath, that is a separate problem with its own answers, and none of them need a plumber. A board or a bench removes the step over the edge, and a powered lift lowers someone right into the water and brings them back up. Our guide to bath aids compares them and shows you what to measure.
To sort the shower in one order, the Shower Chair and Grab Rail Set pairs our 135 kg shower chair with a no-drill suction rail for steadying yourself at the shower edge. For a rail to pull your full weight up on, a fixed rail put in by a tradesperson is still the one to have.
The toilet: one change that makes standing up easier
Getting on and off the toilet is harder than it looks once the knees and hips are not what they were. A raised toilet seat lifts the height, so there is less distance to lower into and less effort to stand back up. If your parent needs something to push against as well, a toilet safety frame sits around the toilet and gives two solid armrests on either side. Both are freestanding, so there is no drilling and nothing permanent to install. If you are deciding between the two, our guide on a raised toilet seat versus a toilet safety frame breaks it down, and our guide to the best toilet aids for elderly Australians names the five we recommend, with prices. You will find them in the bathroom independence range alongside the shower seating.
The bathroom is usually the first room to sort, but rarely the only one. If you are working out what else would help, our guide to the best mobility aids for an ageing parent goes through the rest of the house by need and by budget.
The small things people forget
A few easy changes finish the job. A night light means the path to the bathroom is lit for those 2am trips. Keep the towel within easy reach so there is no stretching across a wet floor. If the taps are stiff to turn, lever-style handles are far kinder to sore hands. And make sure the path from the bedroom to the bathroom is clear of rugs and cords. If that walk is the risk rather than the bathroom itself, a commode beside the bed takes the walk out of it, and our guide to commode chairs covers when that is the right call.
If your parent is recovering from surgery or a hospital stay, the bathroom is only part of the picture. Our recovery at home range covers the bed rails, over-toilet aids and other supports that make those first weeks home safer.
Using NDIS or Support at Home funding to pay for it
If your parent has funding, much of this can be covered. Most bathroom safety aids, including shower chairs, toilet safety frames and grab rails designed for reduced mobility, are eligible under NDIS Consumables, and each sits well under the $1,500 low-cost line, so no quote is needed. They are not "approved" in advance, so an occupational therapist or plan manager confirms what suits your parent's situation.
The way you pay depends on how the plan is managed. If it is self-managed, you simply order and pay, then submit the invoice. If it is plan-managed, choose the NDIS option at checkout and pop the plan manager's email in the order notes, and we send them a compliant invoice directly. Support at Home funds these items through the AT-HM scheme, and most AT-HM items need a participant contribution, so ask the care manager what the share will be. You can see what we carry in our NDIS-eligible range, and the full process is explained on our NDIS funding page.
Whether an item is funded depends on your parent's individual plan and goals. Your plan manager or OT can confirm eligibility before you order, and we handle the invoicing from there.
Where to start if you only do one thing
If the list feels like a lot, start with the shower. A non-slip mat and a shower chair with arms remove the two biggest risks for the smallest effort. You can add the grab rail and toilet support once those are in place. You do not have to fix the whole room in a day, and you do not have to get every choice perfect to make a real difference today.
Common questions about bathroom safety
What shower chair should I get for an ageing parent?
For most parents, a shower chair with arms and a back. Ours is the Shower Chair with Arms & Back, $89.90, with a seat from 39 to 52cm and a 110kg limit. For a taller or heavier parent, the 135 kg version is $159. For a narrow recess, the compact stool, $70, needs only 32 by 32cm.
What are the most important bathroom safety aids for an elderly person?
The four that make the biggest difference are a non-slip mat for the floor, a grab rail to hold near the shower and toilet, a shower chair with arms so they can wash sitting down, and a raised toilet seat. If you can only start with one thing, start with the shower.
How do you make a bathroom safe for an elderly person?
Work through the room one zone at a time. Start with the wet floor, add something solid to hold and somewhere to sit in the shower, raise the toilet height, and light the path for night-time trips. You do not have to fix everything at once to make a real difference.
What can you put in a shower to stop an elderly person slipping?
A non-slip mat inside the shower gives the feet grip on the most slippery surface, a grab rail gives something firm to hold when stepping in and turning, and a shower chair with arms lets them wash sitting down, which removes the riskiest moments of standing and bending.
Are bathroom safety aids covered by the NDIS?
Yes. Most bathroom safety aids, including shower chairs, toilet frames and grab rails designed for reduced mobility, are eligible under the NDIS Consumables category. Self-managed participants claim the invoice back, and for plan-managed participants we send a compliant invoice to the plan manager. Support at Home funds them through the separate AT-HM scheme, usually with a participant contribution.
Do grab rails have to be drilled into the wall?
Not always. Tool-free suction grab rails fix in place without drilling and suit renters or a quick fix, as long as they are fitted to a smooth, non-porous surface and checked before each use. For a permanent hold that takes full body weight, a fixed rail is screwed into a wall stud.
What bathing aids are there for elderly people?
For the shower: a shower chair or stool, a grab rail and a non-slip mat. For the bath: a bath board or transfer bench to sit on and slide across, or a bath lift to lower you in and lift you out. Long handled sponges and brushes help with washing feet and backs without bending.
Three questions and you'll have a specific recommendation for your parent's situation, no guesswork.
Bianca worked in disability services before becoming a mother. She now runs SteadWell, an Australian store for mobility and daily living aids, and personally selects every product in the range against SteadWell's checklist, so families can choose with confidence rather than guesswork.
