Age-Related Changes and Driving

Thank You Karen Richardson!  There is a growing concern for so many people with aging parents and neighbors/friends as well as medical providers related to this critical issue.  I really like the way you constructed this piece, as it gives the overview well and in a streamlined way, which is right up our alley here at Lumigrate.com.  (Yes, driving/road pun intended.)  See? We can even make driving information a bit FUN as well. 

Our other main concept is 'progressive'.  Since Karen took the baton from me at a progressive driving program about 10 years ago, I went on to be haunted and almost hunted by doctors who had patients they were concerned about related to driving ability. So I've continued to do a lot of assessments of functional activity in my therapy area and because of two years of experience knowing how to translate how someone does particular activities and exercises, I can at least weed out the clear 'yes' or 'no' folks and then send the questionable ones to the driving specialists.  There is much someone can do remotely to advise and offer testing, and in some communities there are driving specialists with hospital-based programs, off on their own in private practice, or sometimes the driving programs for young drivers have qualified people if they have some mentoring from a driving specialist who has experience with medically impaired people and driving.  There's growing awareness and concern related to the effects of medication that people are on increasingly.   

I worked closely with a driving specialist OTR at the regional medical center in my community of Grand Junction, CO, where we were fortunate to still have a hospital-supported driving program. In 2011, they opted to close that program and lay off there long-term employee, who purchased some of the equipment and set things up to go off on her own in our community.   These are just the times we are in, and there is a huge void in the funding for these types of services.  If families see the value AND have the money they can pull together from one or more sources/people, then it's my strongest suggestion that they utilize it on advise about driving because the legal and then financial repercussions of having someone driving past when they are capable are staggering.  And most importantly, we wouldn't want our loved ones to be injured themselves, naturally.  

Since driving is not considered a 'necessity' as the country's governments get and have monies for public transportation, it ends up being this HUGE issue over and over again.  It's one of those examples in my opinion, of 'how can a country that was SO capable not see the error of its ways on this?'  Enough said about that, but I did want to bring it up. Part of the responsibility that comes as consumers is to be active in giving feedback in our political system, and that now includes our medical system and these types of issues.    

Back when I was working for MasterDrive for two years around the turn of the millenium, I was in close contact with the Colorado Dept of Motor Vehicle administrators and others, and want to pass along and answer a question right here that so many have: They would LOVE to be testing all senior drivers but don't even have the budget for getting all the first time drivers tested in the way they would prefer. 

Most people who have been to a DMV office for any period of time will report being surprised and concerned at someone who renewed a license.  Just this week I heard 'she couldn't even figure out how to put her face to the eye testing device and do that, how's she on the road operating a vehicle?'  Keeping this in mind is my overall suggestion, and know that the process that is forced by economics to the what is  "supposed to work" is for a medically impaired driver to be repeatedly observed or have infractions they get enough tickets for they lose their license.  Unfortunately, that leaves much room for problems that are costly in bodily and property damage and affects lives and well-being of the people involved and our overall society.  

Within my own family, someone's ability for safe driving diminshed and we had a disagreement about what was going on, so I got to experience first hand being inside one of the difficult family situations I only previously had been a consultant for.  Since there wasn't support of my opinion with my family, I decided to see what happened with 'the process'.  My family member wasn't someone who just drove to church -- there was a monthly full day drive trip to another state to a second home for several years past when I thought driving should end for this person. Once the license expired, it was replaced with an ID, and fortunately nothing occurred that injured anyone else.  Once there was nothing to lose by telling the stories, it was frightening and astounding how someone could have "gotten by with it".  We were ALL very fortunate for that, and I want to include that in my information here so you know "I've been there too".  And again, please be proactive, as we all see the OTHER cases, which are in the news.  

Essentially, it's a long legal process which is stressful, naturally. It costs $30-50,000 to go to court on something major if it's serious and complicated.  

It is unfortunate that the family doctor ever has to be 'the bad guy', but when it comes to their responsibility to report to DMV any driver they know to have a condition that makes them unsafe for operating a motor vehicle, there is a side-effect of the patients not wanting to go to the doctor for fear of that happening!  My family member that I mentioned, above, reported to me after this was all a non-issue that the medical advise I was suggesting they seek out was avoided for this reason.  A refusal to go to the doctor to find out why a person is choking, weakened, and becoming unsafe in their activities of daily living occurred because of the fear of losing driving privileges if the suspected neurological condition was diagnosed and treated.  

SO, I hope this increases the realization that a driving specialist become part of the 'team', also known as The Lumigrate You Model" here on our home page.  Karen is certainly qualified to do that for individuals who have questions, or physicians or other medical providers who have concerns but don't know what to do. 

When I saw this piece posted by Karen, I went to my 'resource room' and pulled out my Physician's Guide to assessing and Counseling Older Drivers, which has a letter dated June 6, 2003 from the CEO of the AMA at the time, Michael Maves, MD, MBA announcing it to be the first product of a cooperative agreement between the AMA and NHTSA (American Medical Asociation / National Highway Transportation Safety Administration).  This is a topic for future discussions in this forum, and maybe it's my turn to start the topic and let Karen come along and pick up the 'comment' ball. 

In summary, physicians have a responsibility to report and in my experience are generally unaware of this and don't know the process at all and are VERY eager for an OT to help them with that. 

I want to hop off here with saying that we have to be careful of 'agism'.  I have the priviledge of having an amazingly healthy, robust 80+ year old woman in my realm of reality and I'd put her behind the wheel ANY DAY and ride along without any more cause for concern than you have overall from being on the roads That is why I prefer the term 'medically impaired driver', because it's not the AGE, it's what's going on inside the body which occurs increasingly with age, but can occur at ANY age.  

THANK YOU KAREN... NOW we're getting somewhere!