Taking the Pedal Off the Metal: When Should Older Adults Stop Driving?
Published by NIH News in Health, October 2021
“… some health conditions common with aging may make it riskier to get behind the wheel. Stiffer joints and weaker muscles can make it harder to steer or brake safely. Eye diseases and some medications can cause vision problems. Hearing loss can blunt the sounds of horns or sirens. And cognitive changes, even mild ones, may impair quick decisions behind the wheel.
Deciding to stop driving can be emotionally challenging for older adults, says Betz. “Many people see their car as a marker of independence. Giving up the privilege of driving can feel like a real loss.”
Driving and dementia regulations differ in most countries; it can vary from losing your drivers license at diagnosis, having to advise the licensing board you have a diagnosis, and so on. My dear friend and colleague James McKillop and I have both published our thoughts on this very divisive topic many years ago…
A recent research article used the quote, “it was like getting my legs cut off” confirming something I said in 2009 when I failed my driving test, and have repeated many times since. I also used to say, it was worse than the diagosis of dementia, and in many ways, very similar to a death.
In a blog published by Dementia Alliance International, the booklet written by James was highlighted on 6 September 2021: “Driving And Dementia: My Experiences” By James McKillop MBE.”
If you meet the criteria for a confirmed diagnosis of dementia, it is highly likely you are unsafe to drive, at least on your ‘bad’ days. The rub of course, is we never know when they will be.
Kate Swaffer (C) 2023
Hence, the importance of working on solutions to alternative methods of transport, is equally, if not more important as it is to ‘get your end of life affairs in order’ or even than living more positively than expected with dementia. I also published about driving and dementia in the Australian Journal of Dementia Care here, Dementia and the impact of not driving_AJDC_KateSwaffer.
Be safe…
Especially if you are still sitting behind the steering wheel, with or without dementia!
I am a carer for my wife Helen who lives with dementia. She drove a red sports Honda Civic. Fast!
When she couldn’t drive she rode behind me in a laid back recumbent Greenspeed Anura trike.
Her motto: lt’a good day when you have had a good laugh. Her mission at work (a nurse): Make work fun!
Her favourite book as a kid: Wind on the Willows which l read to her still.
Her favourite line in it: […]
I wrote this a couple of years ago. Now Helen can’see the cars when she looks out the window. She can see the magpies that knock on the glass and can hear them when they sing for their supper. She still has a laugh when they do it.
John Flynn
Sent from my iPhone
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