Ideas to prevent people from falling and injuring themselves.
I think these ideas can help prevent falls..
1. In walking around your home... never walk in socks. . Socks by nature are very slippery.
2. Although your feet may be cold, it is safer to walk with bare feet than socks..The lines and grooves under your soles, are natural grabbers. They stabilize the body and prevent falls. So do good shoes..
3. As we walk down the stairs, always grab the handrails. Always. Both hands. If there is a slip or stumble, then by holding on, you are immediately protected, and will probably prevent any possible fall. I have had stumbles, and the holding on, totally prevented any falls..
4. Also, walking down stairs, slow down...what is the rush?.by slowing down when walking down steps, some falls might be prevented.
5. Buy shoes with grooves and indentions on soles.. Walking shoes in sports stores, have those which grab on to the surface one walks on... But any kind of stable shoe would probably be better than slippers, because some slippers have no grooves to protect from falls. I would probably put slippers in the same category as socks.
6. There are some socks with bumps on them. The kind given to people in hospitals and rehab facilities. Some of those might help.. they are the only exception to rule number one..but still be very careful even with these kind of socks. The grabber bumps often have dirt and dust on them, and those bumps are not that effective if that happens.
7. Grab handrails walking up..(can't hurt, can it?]
8. Be especially careful of wet surfaces of any kind. slow down even more..
9. Look where you are walking..Why? because if we don't look, (say we are distracted by our obsession to text or talk on the cell phone) then we may miss a imperfection or crack in the sidewalk or surface we are walking on. If we hit a misplaced bump in surface, or an irregularity, that can cause a fall. If we watch where we are walking, and see it coming, we can walk around it or over it. Lots of sidewalks are older and have those kind of imperfections. Now that sounds kind of simple, but so many of us are distracted, and in a rush to get somewhere, that we do not look where we are walking. If we see something coming, prevention is much easier than catching ourselves while falling....
Good luck to all, and add what may have been left out..Of course most of these are just common sense, but listing them here and discussing these ideas, might prevent someone from falling.
= new reply since forum marked as read
about socks vs slippers/shoes/bare feet.
I hate wearing anything on my feet except for socks but with two dogs and very sensitive feet, I do have to wear something, so I wear adjustable/orthopedic slippers with socks around the house. I've actually almost fallen more often with shoes or slippers than with plain socks. My shoes/slippers tend to catch the soles on kitchen mats and stuff and I've almost fallen.
We have handrails on various things (like near the shower, the toilet, going up to the spare bedroom, etc.) left from when my late MIL was living with us and we just never removed them because they're so helpful.
I go down the stairs backwards, one slow step at a time while holding onto the railing. Bad knees, and for me it's easier on them.
When walking around my home, I tend to put a hand on whatever is nearby, like a chair or a counter, or even the wall just for support.
And I look down occasionally to make sure I'm not going to trip over a dog or a dog toy.
That's in the house.
Outside it's a whole different world. Rocks and holes and mud...
Really scary
I do most of these things. So I won't fall, right???!!! 
I too, hate shoes when I am home indoors, but try to be careful.
There are some excellent tips here. I especially liked the one about going backwards and also about getting rid of little throw rugs.
I don't think socks are that dangerous, though, if you have mostly rugs fairly watched to the size of the room in the house, for example. In my house, every room has an oriental rug, and that provides good traction.
Still, there are a few rugs that have a rolled area or some other aberration that makes them dangerous. I'm going to fix those things, now that I've ready these very good tips.
Cher
I won't do THAT again! 
