You are so right! My husband installed grab bars in the shower. They are so handy to keep you from falling! Especially when the wash cloth falls down onto the floor of the shower! No cute throw rugs or mats in the house. People are going more to hardwood floors these days but if you do fall, carpeting is easier on your body. We also have railings on our outside porch steps.
Thanks for the topic!
PML

Exactly! There are many seniors who don’t want grab bars because they’re “unsightly “. Hopefully they don’t learn the hard way. 🤕

I'll add several grab bar suggestions:

-- Before you install them, mimic the movements you are likely to use if you need them. For example, if you put one by the door where there is a step (say, from a garage into the house), put your hand where it will give you the best balance. Install the grab bar exactly there, probably vertically. In the shower, pretend to fall, and see where your hand automatically moves to grab the bar. It may be lower than the normal installation height.

-- There is no such thing as too many grab bars, if you think you might need them. You never know when a guest might need them, too. Or another family member.

-- Try to find bars that are not slippery, especially if you think your hand might be wet. Oddly, these are harder to find than you might think, but they do exist.

-- Make sure they will hold your weight if they are intended to keep you from falling. It's one thing to use something with suction cups for balance. It's another entirely if you think you might put your entire weight upon it suddenly. The issue of screwing through drywall into studs seems to me to be a bit of a tradeoff. If you can do it while keeping the location ideal, great. If you wind up putting it somewhere that it won't be instinctively in the right place when you fall, not so much. Kind of depends, I suppose, on whether you want it to stop you quickly (before all your weight jerks it), or whether you expect your feet to slide out from under you so your entire weight hangs on the bar. I'm guessing that this therefore matters a lot in the shower or bath, and less elsewhere?

-- Consider additional banisters. We've now got banisters on both sides of the stairs, which has proved helpful. They are, when you think about it, basically long, skinny grab bars.