I'm hoping i can get some help from anyone who has experienced this with their older parent(s) (80+). Where I live the province enacted laws/procedures for older drivers. Essentially, when a person reaches the age of 84 there is a process they must go through. People under the age may also be subject to this (if so deemed for whatever reason) and it starts with their physicians.
The program was sold to the province (lobbied) by a company called Driveable – many countries are getting on board it seems.
_http://www.driveable.com/
From what can be gathered, it was developed first in the 70’s upon fears of an aging driver profile. The stats used don’t seem to have been realized and of course some people no matter what age should not drive, yet this is having troubling implications on many good older drivers’ lives. It can often pit patient and physicians against each other or crush a person’s well being if facts are subjective and unfounded.
Here is a group that has come out against Driveable with their thinking:
_http://www.bcrta.ca/news-items/DriveAble.pdf
I am meeting with my mom’s physician late this week to ask questions and here is her background:
She is 84, an excellent driver (bias aside) and not once has she had an accident in her life of driving. She drives 20 – 25 thousand km. a year and can handle cities like Montreal. Her driving environs however are rural generally (easy).
The Process:
She gives her GP physician many pages of documents back and the physician (assumed they have been trained) then delivers a cognitive test. The test, i think, is called “Word List Recall Task (immediate recall).” Here is what she said happened:
Note: physical report was excellent, eyesight 20/20. She reads extensively; even SotT and many of the books from the forum and can recall points easily.
In her words:
According to this: _http://www.docstoc.com/docs/21652574/WORD-LIST-MEMORY-TASK-%28IMMEDIATE-RECALL%29
The list is supposed to be read off slowly, a word every 2 seconds and then the patient is asked to repeat it back (one variant).
She has a hard time with physicians as she has an alternative Homeopath (who also is a Dr. of Medicine in a different province) and the home town Dr. doesn’t really like this; this has caused much tension (e.g., Dr. says take Statins - that cholesterol game - while the H-path says you don’t need that, type of thing).
So researching, it has been noticed that the Drivable FAQ discusses Physicians being Liable, yet case law says otherwise (this likely is scaring physicians). Also, in the EU (certain places) where they tried this out, apparently there was a big backlash even from scientists.
So I’m meeting with the Dr. later this week to ask questions, perhaps see if there were errors of test administration, discuss her nervousness and see if this can be done again (negative results like cognitive impairment are now a subject of medical file records and may be very unfair – driving test aside). If anyone has had some experience with this type of matter or can offer some advice, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
The program was sold to the province (lobbied) by a company called Driveable – many countries are getting on board it seems.
_http://www.driveable.com/
From what can be gathered, it was developed first in the 70’s upon fears of an aging driver profile. The stats used don’t seem to have been realized and of course some people no matter what age should not drive, yet this is having troubling implications on many good older drivers’ lives. It can often pit patient and physicians against each other or crush a person’s well being if facts are subjective and unfounded.
Here is a group that has come out against Driveable with their thinking:
_http://www.bcrta.ca/news-items/DriveAble.pdf
I am meeting with my mom’s physician late this week to ask questions and here is her background:
She is 84, an excellent driver (bias aside) and not once has she had an accident in her life of driving. She drives 20 – 25 thousand km. a year and can handle cities like Montreal. Her driving environs however are rural generally (easy).
The Process:
She gives her GP physician many pages of documents back and the physician (assumed they have been trained) then delivers a cognitive test. The test, i think, is called “Word List Recall Task (immediate recall).” Here is what she said happened:
Note: physical report was excellent, eyesight 20/20. She reads extensively; even SotT and many of the books from the forum and can recall points easily.
In her words:
According to this: _http://www.docstoc.com/docs/21652574/WORD-LIST-MEMORY-TASK-%28IMMEDIATE-RECALL%29
The list is supposed to be read off slowly, a word every 2 seconds and then the patient is asked to repeat it back (one variant).
She has a hard time with physicians as she has an alternative Homeopath (who also is a Dr. of Medicine in a different province) and the home town Dr. doesn’t really like this; this has caused much tension (e.g., Dr. says take Statins - that cholesterol game - while the H-path says you don’t need that, type of thing).
So researching, it has been noticed that the Drivable FAQ discusses Physicians being Liable, yet case law says otherwise (this likely is scaring physicians). Also, in the EU (certain places) where they tried this out, apparently there was a big backlash even from scientists.
So I’m meeting with the Dr. later this week to ask questions, perhaps see if there were errors of test administration, discuss her nervousness and see if this can be done again (negative results like cognitive impairment are now a subject of medical file records and may be very unfair – driving test aside). If anyone has had some experience with this type of matter or can offer some advice, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
