A handrail is one of the few fixtures in the house that is asked to hold a person's full weight at the moment she needs it most. It works loose slowly, usually at the brackets and the post, and nobody notices until the day it moves. Give it a standing check, a named owner, and a clear rule for when to stop using it.
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What to check each month
Walk the length of the rail with your hand on it, then stop at each bracket and push it gently in each direction. You are looking for movement, a creak, a gap between the bracket and the wall, or a crack in the paint or drywall around a screw. Check the top and bottom posts where the rail meets the newel or the wall. Check every joint where two lengths of rail meet.
What loosens and why
Brackets loosen when the screws were set into drywall or a thin anchor rather than into a stud or a solid block. The wall gives first, then the screw turns, then the bracket rocks. Driving the same screw harder into the same hole does not fix it. If an anchor has pulled out, the hole is already too big, and the repair is a different job.
Furniture moves, rugs change, and a helper who leans on the rail can each change where the load lands on the wall. Note any change in the house, because the rail may now be carrying a new angle of force.
Repair or stop
Tighten a loose screw that is still biting into solid wood. If the screw spins with no grip, stop turning it. Move the bracket to a stud, add a block of solid wood behind the wall, or hire the repair out. A rail that has moved in its bracket should not be used to help her up or down the stairs until it is fixed, and whoever finds it should say so out loud to everyone else in the house.
Name the owner
Write three names on one page: who does the monthly walk, who tightens or calls the repair, and who is told when a rail is taken out of use. If only one person knows the rail is loose, the job has no owner. Keep the page with the other house papers, and check the rail on the same monthly routine the house already keeps.