Dementia crash: teen's family pleads for law change

In the UK, an 89-year-old man drove the wrong way on a freeway, causing a collision that killed 19-year-old Charlotte Pitwell. It was later revealed that the man suffered from dementia. As a result of the accident, Ms. Pitwell's family is determined that the law must be changed to restrict older drivers.

Click here to read the story.

I admit that on the few occasions I have been driven somewhere by my 90-year-old uncle, I watch his driving carefully, looking for signs that he shouldn't be behind the wheel. He, however, doesn't have dementia. No doubt his reactions are slower than they used to be when he was flying with the RAF, but otherwise he still exhibits very safe driving.

Loss of a driver's license is a big deal to seniors. It's a loss of independence. It's a confirmation that life is being down-sized to accommodate aging. And let's face it, none of us likes to be told what we can and cannot do, especially by our children.

Should the law tell us when we should stop driving, or should that be something that is voluntarily regulated by each of us? Read this article and see what you think.

Dementia and driving

This first hand account of a woman trying to get her mother to stop driving due to the mother's dementia will sound familiar to some of you. Take heart in knowing you're not the only one who finds it next to impossible to tell a parent their driving days are over. Click here to read the story from My Chaotic Bliss.

Family dynamics and the older driver

I'm attaching a link here to an article about a service called Keeping Us Safe, which helps older drivers and their families deal with the transition from driving to non-driving. What I found particularly useful about this article was the way that the family members, who were fighting with each other about what was "best for Dad", responded to a neutral third party that stepped in to help.

This article really demonstrates what a wonderful outcome there can be when all of the kids really are concerned about an aging parent but need a bit of help reaching a consensus. It is possible to resolve issues with the help of a third party without having to go to court.

I also took specific note of the fact that the dad in this story was so upset that his children were fighting over what to do about him. The fear of pitting his children against each other made his own decision-making almost impossible.

Valuable resource for the family of an aging driver

I've recently come across an interesting resource called "Beyond Driving With Dignity", a workbook for the families of older drivers. It sells for $27.95 (USD). Below is the blurb from their website, which you can visit by clicking here.  The photo is also from that website.

As a way of providing an additional tool for families working with an older driver, Keeping Us Safe has developed the “Beyond Driving with Dignity” workbook.

It was specifically designed to help your family by providing you with a “roadmap to success” in your quest to overcome the challenges of an older driver’s safety. It is designed to be used by families as a tool to meet the demands of a potential problem when you become suspect of the senior driver’s ability to remain a safe driver.

Timely and appropriate use of this workbook and of all available resources will help keep families from making many of the common mistakes encountered by others as you move toward a possible driving retirement for your loved one.

Working through this instrument will help your family make driving-related decisions that are not only in the best interest of the older driver, but simultaneously find themselves in the best interest of highway safety in general. This workbook was designed to be used by your family in the confidence and comfort of your own home, most likely seated right at your family’s kitchen table.

Unexpected findings on elderly drivers

This article in the New York Times discusses some of the findings of the recent two-day forum on Safety, Mobility and the Aging Driver. Apparently the findings were surprising to some, and were over all good news for older drivers who don't yet want to hang up their keys. Click here to read the article.

Elderly drivers: Are you safe?

Some good advice and information from Chris Cooper, a financial planner, about dealing with aging parents who perhaps are not happy about giving up driving. Click here to read the story.

Life Without a Car: Helping Seniors Adjust

There is an excellent article in the latest issue of Solutions Magazine called "Life Without a Car: Helping Seniors Adjust". If you're faced with a parent who really shouldn't be driving anymore, this article will help you deal with the issue. The author, Arif Abdulla, seems to have the kind of approach that I personally like, which is to use diplomacy rather than force, and to have some compassion for the elderly person whose life is being changed by your actions.

If you'd like to read the article, click here.

Seniors and driving

I've just read a book review on http://www.eldercare.ca of what sounds like an excellent book, The Driving Dilemma by Elizabeth Dugan. It talks about what happens when a senior's family thinks the senior should stop driving. I'm going to look for this book myself, as this is a topic that is of concern to many of my clients and their families. Read the book review here.