The Driving Dilemma: The Complete Resource Guide for Older Drivers and Their Families

By Elizabeth Dugan

It's no secret that our population is aging. In fact, it won't be long before one in four drivers will be over the age of 65. Research suggests we'll outlive our ability to drive by almost ten years—but knowing when to stop or limit driving isn't always clear.

The Driving Dilemma is a comprehensive resource for older drivers and their families facing questions about driving safety. Dr. Dugan provides clear, useful information about the effects of age, medical conditions, and medications on driving. She offers practical advice on how to discuss this issue with loved ones. Such talks can be difficult, and the book provides not only the facts, but also a research-based approach to communication, with useful sample dialogue scripts that will help you discuss driving with your loved ones. Also included are state-by-state listings of available resources, making this book a total information source for families.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Oct 13, 2009
• ISBN: 9780061873751

Book preview

THE

Driving Dilemma

The Complete Resource Guide

for Older Drivers and Their Families

Elizabeth Dugan, Ph.D.

Contents

Acknowledgments

INTRODUCTION

What Is the Driving Dilemma?

CHAPTER 1

Assessing Fitness to Drive

CHAPTER 2

Medical Conditions That Increase Driving Risk

CHAPTER 3

Driving and Drugs: Prescription and Over-the-Counter Medications, Vitamins, and Herbal Supplements

CHAPTER 4

Planning to Avoid Dilemmas

CHAPTER 5

Legal Issues and License Regulations

CHAPTER 6

Learning to Talk About Change

CHAPTER 7

Get Talking

CHAPTER 8

Resolving Dilemmas

APPENDIX 1

Forms to Help Assess the Situation

APPENDIX 2

Forms for Implementing Change

APPENDIX 3

Where to Find Help

Searchable Terms

About the Author

Credits

Copyright

About the Publisher

Acknowledgments

There are many people who helped to make this book a reality. First, I want to express my appreciation for the financial support provided by the Division of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and the Meyers Primary Care Institute. That generous support gave me the time and resources to write this. I am grateful for the support and guidance of my division chief, Dr. Jerry Gurwitz.

I count myself fortunate to be a member of a very talented research team. I thank Vanessa Meterko for outstanding research assistance. In the early days of the project, Vanessa helped me think through the outline, conducted extensive background research, and even provided advice on what music would make me more productive. I thank Katie Dodd for her excellent research assistance. Katie tackled the daunting task of finding and compiling the information in the appendices. Her exceptional analytical skills, diligence, and energy made the project much easier. I appreciate Joann Baril’s meticulous assistance with proofreading the manuscript, and thank Sherri Epstein for helping to compile and verify the state-level licensing regulations. Sherri provided important administrative and software assistance, too. The entire team carefully read draft after draft and provided constructive feedback.

I appreciate the help of Harry Margolis, J.D., and Alan Dodd, J.D., who tutored me in legal and state regulatory issues. I am indebted to many friends and colleagues who read chapters for content and clinical accuracy. I especially thank Dr. Sarah McGee, the director of education in the Division of Geriatric Medicine; Dr. Leslie Harrold, from the Meyers Primary Care Institute and the University of Massachusetts Medical School Division of Rheumatology; and Dr. Petra Flock from the Division of Geriatric Medicine.

I want to thank Dr. Tom Perls and JaeMi Pennington from the Boston University School of Medicine New England Centenarian Study for connecting me with several of their inspiring study participants. I count those conversations among my career highlights.

I am especially grateful to two experienced authors who advised me throughout the process. Stephen R. Braun, an award-winning author from Amherst, Massachusetts, provided mentoring and editing; right from the start, he encouraged me to pursue the project and deserves special thanks for thinking of the title. Jeannine Johnson, Ph.D., from the Harvard College Expository Writing Program was a great support. Despite teaching, administering a writing center, and writing her own book (Why Write Poetry), she gladly shared her wit, words, and warm encouragement. She deserves special thanks for helping me to make Chapter 3 understandable. Both Steve and Jeannine read every word of every draft and patiently taught me how to transform my tired academic jargon into more engaging text. The book is much better because of them; any errors or problems that remain in the text are mine, of course.

I thank my editor at HarperCollins, Toni Sciarra, for her patience, guidance, and skill. Thanks also to Anne Cole, Shelby Meizlik, and all of the folks at HarperCollins for their contributions. In addition, I want to acknowledge and thank my agent, Jeff Kleinman, of Folio Literary Management. Jeff immediately recognized the importance of the topic and has been an energetic and effective champion of the project. The book would not have happened without him.

Many excellent sources were reviewed to develop this book; however, due to space constraints not all could be included in the final text. Please check www.drivingdilemma.com for additional, updated information. Readers should know that, when appropriate, I changed a name or minor details in a case to protect an individual’s privacy.

It is impossible to fully articulate my thanks to everyone who so honestly shared driving stories, worries, failures, and successes. I remain indebted to you and even more committed to working to improve the situation.

Finally, I thank my family for their love and support—you are the greatest.

INTRODUCTION

What Is the Driving Dilemma?

Even though I am a baby boomer who affectionately calls my mother Crash, I should admit that she wasn’t the inspiration for this book. Ironically, it wasn’t until I was nearly finished with this project that my mother unwittingly became an example of the kind of accident that is becoming more and more common as our population ages: an older person, driving on a weekday, close to home, involved in a collision while making a left turn. Fortunately, no one was hurt in the accident, but it sure was a wake-up call for my family. After more than 50 years of accident-free driving, my mother provided an unwanted and all-too-personal case study with which to illustrate the problem facing older drivers and their family members.

One good thing to come out of my mother’s accident is that I can personally attest that the steps outlined in this book work. It’s no longer just an interesting topic of research for me. After her accident, my mother, my siblings, and I assessed the situation, talked over the issues that could compromise my mother’s driving safety, and worked together to create a plan that works for us. The information and strategies I present can help anybody, whether you’re an older adult concerned about your own driving or if you’re worried about a loved one. The dilemma of figuring out if an older driver is safe and, if not, what can be done about it is common and vexing. Until now, the information you need to make sense of this situation hasn’t been readily available. The research-based approach described in this book is clear, straight forward, and effective. By following these guidelines, you can not only improve the safety of an older driver, but you can also avoid the emotional land mines that can be as devastating to a family as an actual accident.

In researching this topic, I’ve been touched by the expressions of love, respect, and concern made by spouses or adult children for an older person who’s struggling to drive safely. I’ve also been heartened and encouraged by the older adults I’ve interviewed who have faced the dilemma squarely and, whether they are driving or not, have found solutions that work in their own lives. Don’t be misled—confronting a driving problem (or a potential problem) isn’t easy or pleasant for anybody—but by reading this book, you can gain the knowledge, skills, and confidence you need to tackle a difficult family issue with grace.

The Age Wave

It’s no secret that the proportion of older adults in the population is increasing. This age wave is caused by unparalleled medical and public health achievements. It is amazing to realize that never before in human history have most people in developed countries lived to old age. I hope you appreciate what an incredible development this is—on average we have an extra two or three decades of life compared to people who lived just 100 years ago. Gerontologists expect that older people will continue to make up an increasingly large part of the population. For example, data from the U.S. Census indicate that every day in 2005 about 6,000 Americans turned 65, but by 2015, more than 10,000 people will turn 65 each day. The overwhelming majority of these seniors will be driving. In fact, the number of licensed older drivers is expected to more than double in the next twenty years. It won’t be long before one out of four drivers will be age 65 or older. Currently, about half of all women and 80% of men aged 85 and older still drive.

The good news is that older drivers are usually pretty safe drivers. Compared to younger drivers, older drivers tend to drive fewer miles per year, wear their seat belts, and rarely drive while intoxicated or get ticketed for speeding. Also, contrary to popular myth, the accident rate for even the oldest group of drivers is much lower than that of teenagers and young adults. The chart below illustrates the crash rate by age group using 2004 data from The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

National Center for Statistics and Analysis National Highway Traffic Safety Administration U.S. Department of Transportation

Unfortunately, the bad news is that when an older adult does have an accident, he or she is much more likely than a younger driver to be killed or seriously injured. Per mile driven, the fatality rate for drivers 85 years and older is nine times higher than the rate for drivers 25 to 69 years old. But whatever the risks of driving, older people continue to prefer it to other forms of transportation. Cabs can be expensive and difficult to hire, especially outside major cities. In addition, in many places public transportation options for older adults are either nonexistent or undesirable. More and more seniors live in the suburbs or rural areas, where public transportation is generally lacking. And even when public transportation is available, older adults don’t take advantage of it. One study found that, in areas with easy access to public transportation, older adults report using it for less than 3% of their trips.

These trends combine to create a new—and usually disturbing—developmental milestone in life: the moment you hang up the car keys for good. Recent research indicates that most drivers will outlive their driving ability by about 7 to 10 years. Driving cessation, in other words, is fast becoming one of life’s pivotal events, akin in its poignancy and logistical significance to marriage or parenthood. Unfortunately, this evolution has come upon us so rapidly that, unlike transitions such as parenthood or retirement, we have no traditions or customs surrounding it, nor a firm foundation of experience for making the passage easier on everybody.

Driving cessation is so pivotal because driving is closely associated with freedom, autonomy, youth, and an ability to care for oneself. The following quote from a 73-year-old man powerfully expresses this:

The day I had to give up driving was, by far, the worst day of my life. I was devastated and bawled my eyes out. I didn’t know what to do—I had always been independent.

A recognized problem with driving is likely to be a sentinel event in a person’s life, foreshadowing other changes that threaten independence—such as a need for in-home assistance, moving to more accessible or appropriate housing, or experiencing increasingly serious health problems. Many of the strategies outlined in this book to help you talk effectively about the driving dilemma are also perfectly applicable to other age-related issues. I hope that being prepared to deal with this first challenge will help you and your family to handle other later-life issues.

What Are the Facts About Older Drivers?

Crashes. As noted above, older drivers actually have relatively low rates of accidents. But they’re more likely to be injured or to die as a result of those accidents, and they recover more slowly from any injuries sustained. The most deadly type of crash, the side impact, occurs more characteristically with older drivers (particularly on left turns). Among older drivers, men are two times as likely as women to die in a crash. Most traffic fatalities involving older drivers occur during the daytime (81%) and on weekdays (72%); 75% of the crashes involve another vehicle.

Driving Modification. Many older drivers modify or self-regulate their driving behavior to avoid risky situations such as driving in bad weather, in heavy traffic, or at night. Many drivers intuitively know when to limit their driving and do so successfully. Unfortunately, however, some older adults do not use such self-protective measures. Adults with any type of brain disorder are less likely to self-regulate because their disorder interferes with the ability to think. Specifically, they may be unable to evaluate their driving ability or to remember to limit or stop driving. The Alzheimer Association estimates that 4 million people are now afflicted with dementia—and that number will grow sharply in coming years.

Chronic Disease. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that nearly three out of four adults age 65 and older have one or more chronic illnesses. Nearly half of older adults report having two or more chronic diseases. Thanks to advances in medical technology, people are living longer than ever despite such conditions. But the conditions themselves or the medications used to treat the conditions may impair driving fitness. For example, a common side effect of many medications is drowsiness, which is an obvious hazard for driving.

Age. Just because someone is 75, or 85, or 95 does not automatically mean they should give up driving. What matters in driving is not how old a person is, but how well that person can see, think, and move. Decades of biomedical research have firmly established that functional ability changes at different rates for different people. We all know people who are healthy and active well into their 90s, while others may become debilitated or die in their 50s or 60s. Age alone, therefore, is a false and unfair marker of driving ability. Chapter 1 discusses driving fitness and age in greater detail.

Giving up the keys for good can be extraordinarily difficult. It’s both difficult to do and difficult to ask someone else to do. America is built for cars, and we take great pride in independence. The automobile industry invests millions of dollars in advertising to reinforce the notion that driving equals freedom and self-determination. The majority of older adults depend on their cars for nearly all their activities: medical visits, shopping, recreation, attendance at religious services, and visits to family and friends. Losing one’s ability to drive isn’t just inconvenient. It can be socially isolating, depressing, and even hazardous to one’s health. Most of us are ill-prepared to confront this issue, are uncomfortable even bringing it up, and don’t know where to turn for advice and guidance. That’s why this issue is so powerful, so potentially divisive, and so frustrating.

Despite the discomfort, complexities, and challenges, however, it is vitally important to accurately assess driving ability, acknowledge the fears and emotions inherent in the issue, communicate clearly and calmly, and, if necessary, find alternatives to driving that are health-promoting and effective.

This book is organized according to the processes that an older driver or someone worried about a loved one will go through if they are concerned about driving fitness and safety:

Assess

Plan

Talk

Act

Admittedly, the organization and division of the material is a little arbitrary—because you’ll have to talk as you assess, plan, and act. As a result, you might consider reading the communication section (Chapters 6, 7, and 8) before taking steps to implement the assessments outlined in Chapter 1. Assessment information such as forms to help you recognize the warning signs of driving risk, a description of medical conditions that may impair driving, and information about the impact of medications are all covered in Chapters 1, 2, and 3. Chapters 4, 5, and 6 help you to organize and use this information to develop an action plan that takes into account potential legal issues and possible barriers to effective action. Chapter 7 focuses on how to broach the issue of driving, how best to talk about it, and what pitfalls to avoid during the conversations. I include examples and exercises that can boost your confidence in talking about tough issues. Chapter 8 describes assistive devices that may extend a driver’s ability to keep driving safely, action steps, and how to follow through on the plan. The appendices contain a tremendous amount of information designed to be of immediate use to you and your family.

I know that talking openly about what may be the first of many small losses due to illness or disability is not easy. The changes to you or your loved one may be distressing. Still, although this book focuses on the dilemma of driving, there may be bright spots along the way. More open communication may make your relationship even closer. I hope that the information presented here educates, comforts, and helps you and the driver you are concerned about.

CHAPTER 1

Assessing Fitness to Drive

Your aunt is 86 and has just returned from a care facility where she had stayed to recover from a fall. She walks very slowly and has difficulty with stairs, but she insists she is a safe driver and hasn’t had any kind of traffic accident in more than 20 years. Still, you wonder, should she be driving?

Your father is 72 and is in relatively good health, but while driving with you recently on the highway, he strayed to the left-hand shoulder, then overcorrected with a sudden jerk of the wheel. This left you frightened and him defensively arguing that it wasn’t a big deal. Is he at risk?

Your mother is 75 and you’ve noticed that in the past couple of years she has been repeating herself—sometimes telling you the same story twice in a conversation. You notice some dings on the bumpers of her car, and a scratch on the right side. When you ask her about them, she seems surprised and says they must be from other people bumping into her car while it was parked at the grocery store. Should you be worried about her driving?

These very common situations all confront you with a similar challenge: How do you know if an older adult is fit to drive? Since age alone is not a reliable indicator, what should you be looking for? And, if you are an older driver, what should you be looking for in your own driving habits that might signal a need for some kind of change?

This chapter describes the most common warning signs of driving risk and gives you some tools to assess whether a real driving problem exists. Specifically, I explain what the indicators of driving fitness are, what signals a problem, how to categorize the severity of problems, how to conduct a home assessment, and what’s involved in a professional assessment. Appendix 1 includes assessment forms that can be used either by an older driver for self-assessment or by a family member or friend. Appendix 2 contains forms to help you to implement changes by talking with your physician about specific functional concerns related to driving that may need some medical intervention.

Driving safety involves factors related to the vehicle, the roadways, the weather and other conditions. Above all, driving safety involves the driver. This chapter focuses primarily on drivers and on determining their fitness for driving. Although it is important to ensure that a vehicle is in proper mechanical condition, that issue is beyond the scope of this book. I’m working from the assumption that the vehicle is in good working condition. Also, other factors play a role in how safely a person can operate a vehicle: the conditions of the roads and a driver’s familiarity with them, the weather, and the time of day all can affect driving safety. Obviously, all possible conditions can’t be addressed here, but they should be taken into account when determining driver fitness. If you are concerned about a driver’s fitness, you will want to observe his or her driving firsthand and