Older Driver Safety Awareness Week
It is a fact of life that people grow older everyday. With increasing age come changes in physical, mental and sensory abilities that can challenge a person’s continued ability to drive safely. But there are a variety of safe travel options for people of all ages. The real need is a broader awareness of the solutions, rather than a narrow focus on the problem.
The American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) believes that occupational therapy practitioners have the skills to evaluate a person’s overall ability to operate a vehicle safely and provide rehabilitation, if necessary. Many are specially trained in the full scope of driving rehabilitation. Occupational therapy practitioners work with older adults as well as their families and caregivers, offering individualized assessment. They can identify individuals’ unique challenges and find strategies that will help them live life to its fullest by keeping them active, healthy, and safe in their communities.
Older Driver Safety Awareness Week (December 6–10, 2010) aims to promote understanding of the importance of mobility and transportation to ensuring older adults remain active in the community—shopping, working or volunteering—with the confidence that transportation will not be the barrier to strand them at home.
Throughout the week, AOTA will bring attention to a different aspect of older driver safety:
- Monday, December 6: Family Conversations
- Tuesday, December 7: Screening/Evaluations
- Wednesday, December 8: Driving Equipment/Adaptations
- Thursday, December 9: Taking Changes in Stride
- Friday, December 10: Life After Driving
We have separated the information into two sections, one for consumers and one for practitioners, with each day's focus.
| Older Driver Topics for Consumers |
Suggested Activities for Practitioners |
| Monday, December 6 |
Monday, December 6 |
| Tuesday, December 7 |
Tuesday, December 7 |
| Wednesday, December 8 |
Wednesday, December 8 |
| Thursday, December 9 |
Thursday, December 9 |
| Friday, December 10 |
Friday, December 10 |
Monday: Family Conversations
The first step in addressing older driver issues is to have a conversation with the older driver. Conversations about continued safe driving by an older adult can easily spark strong emotional reactions. Such discussions can undermine feelings of independence and competence in the older driver whose skill and competence are being questioned. But, the conversations can also be an opportunity for good communication and problem solving.
Many of us look to the older person’s physician or drivers licensing agency to help start these conversations. Although outside agents can play a part in the conversation, family and friends also play a major role in these discussions. In addition, family will likely live with the consequences of these discussions for years to come. Learn more about how to help an older driver by reviewing these free guides prepared by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.
Learn more about how to help an older driver by reviewing these free guides:
Ideally, it would help to have these conversations when there was no crisis looming. Very few people think to plan ahead for the time when they may have to limit or stop driving their own car. Occupational therapy practitioners have the opportunity to inform and provide supporting information.
Tuesday: Screening/Evaluations
Driving is a very complex activity that requires certain physical, visual, and cognitive abilities. As people age, those abilities often change in subtle ways. For example, older drivers may find it more difficult to see while driving at night but have no problem in daylight.
Most of us go to the doctor for regular physical check-ups. It’s also just as important to get a check-up for driving fitness. After all, for most of us, driving is our main way to stay connected to the community and is a key to our independence.
Some driving fitness evaluations are self-assessments. These can be useful educational tools to help identify potential challenges to your driving health. If you’re concerned about the results of these informal self-assessments, however, it is important to consider a comprehensive driving evaluation from an occupational therapy driving rehabilitation specialist. To learn more about comprehensive driving evaluations, order a free copy of Your Road Ahead: A Guide to Comprenhensive Driving Evaluations from The Hartford.
Wednesday: Driving Equipment/Adaptations
Intervention is based on a plan that is drawn up between the client and the therapist. The goal of intervention is to explore ways for individuals to drive safely for as long as safely possible. Occupational therapy practitioners can provide basic assessments and those trained in driving rehabilitation can suggest solutions, including adaptive equipment, such as a wide-angle mirror, seat cushions, left-foot gas pedal, or hand controls.
CarFit is a free, community-based program designed to enhance your comfort and safety while driving. Occupational therapy practitioners are on-site to recommend potential solutions that may help you. Read the free brochure and sign up for an event near you.
Thursday: Taking Changes in Stride
The ability to drive safely can be affected by changes in our physical, emotional, and mental conditions. Although changes take place as a part of normal aging, these changes occur individually and at different times.
Age alone is not a good predictor of driving safety or ability. But safety research clearly shows that declines in our physical, emotional, and mental abilities may increase crash risk or unsafe driving.
One key to safety is knowing when we or another driver are at increased risk. To be knowledgeable and make wise choices we must be attentive and know what to look for.
Visit the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) Web page, Driving Safely While Aging Gracefully, or download AAA's Older and Wiser Driver to read more about the changes that can affect safe driving and the signs that indicate the need to take a closer look at a person's driving.
Friday: Life After Driving
For most of us, it's difficult to change from the convenience and independence of driving ourselves to relying on some other means to get around our communities. But when we need to limit or stop our driving, we are faced with a clear choice: We either find another way to get to the people and places we want to go, or we stop going out.
Many prefer to ask family and friends to help get around. Most communities around the country have other choices ranging from public transportation (the bus or taxi systems for example) to specialized programs for persons with identified needs such as para-transit and medical transport services. Some of these are paid services; others rely on unpaid volunteers.
Finding out more about your community choices—even before you need them—can keep you connected to your community and keep you participating in those activities that are important to you.
If you are not sure where to find public transportation in your community, go to www.publictransportation.org. This public transit Web site for the public is a great resource. If you go to the header "Transit Systems," you can locate public transportation systems in your area. Additionally, you can find out which airports have mass transit connections.
Suggested Activities for Practitioners
Monday: Family Conversations
- Listen to a podcast on this topic.
- Provide a free community presentation based on the comprehensive resource, www.AAASeniors.com.
- Offer a “We Need to Talk” seminar (produced by AARP based on information created jointly by The Hartford and the MIT AgeLab) in your community discussing changes associated with aging and the warning signs to watch for. To order free copies of The Hartford's We Need to Talk: Family Conversations with Older Drivers, click here.
- Place (free) resource materials in lobbies of your clinic or local physician’s offices:
- Contact your local Area Agency on Aging and invite them to a “lunch and learn” with your staff. Plan to share information about each other’s programs and services. As you explore the typical questions about driving and community mobility, you can create a list of the hierarchy of programs, services, and needs in your local community. Distribute this summary to the health care programs and physicians in your area.
- Submit an article to a local community newspaper or bulletin at a senior community. Inform them of resources available in the community.
Tuesday: Screening/Evaluations
- Listen to the podcast on this topic.
- Distribute copies of Your Road Ahead: A Guide to Comprenhensive Driving Evaluations available free of charge from The Hartford.
- Create a printed resources guide describing the driving rehabilitation specialists in your community and the services they offer.
- Invite a local driving rehabilitation specialist to speak with your staff and/or health care team. Plan a meeting to better understand the referral process: who to refer for evaluation, how to know when a person is ready for the driving evaluation and how you can help make them ready by enabling them to have their best chance at passing.
- Offer a community presentation using the resources available to you in the Drive Well toolkit. For example, see 5 Simple Actions to Improve Driving located on p. 162 of the toolkit.
- Order or print multiple copies of the AMA Physicians Guide and distribute to local family practice and gerontology clinics.
- Distribute copies of AAA Roadwise Review. This CD-ROM allows users to measure the functional abilities scientifically linked to crash risk among older drivers in the privacy and comfort of their own homes.
- Distribute copies of Drivers 55 Plus: Check Your Own Performance prepared by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.
Wednesday: Driving Equipment/Adaptations
- Listen to a podcast on this topic.
- Host a CarFit event in your community. (Free CarFit brochure.)
- Set up a display for a local senior fair or in the lobby in a continuous care community.
- Create a demonstration kit for your clinic to prompt conversations prior to client discharge. Include commonly suggested items such as the Handy Bar®, swivel seat cushion, build up key holders and leg lifters.
- Advertise driving lessons and refresher courses available for seniors through local driving schools, AARP or AAA.
Thursday: Taking Changes in Stride
- Listen to a podcast on this topic.
- Gather local public transportation tools and resources and create an information kiosk in your facility. Include information describing educational programs that may be offered in your community, such as travel training or driving lessons, specifically geared as a refresher for both skills and rules of the road. No programs offered? Contact a local driving school and explore the possibility of their offering such a service.
- Visit the searchable database showing each state's Driver Licensing Policies and Practices affecting older and medically-at-risk drivers. Educate your community about the laws in your state.
- Clients and families faced with the diagnosis of dementia will need to plan for inevitable changes in their living situation, financial management, and transportation options. Order the At The Crossroads leader toolkit and accompanying guidebooks. Then, plan a 3-session educational support group for families of persons with dementia, with a focus on concerns and decisions related to driving cessation.
- Help older drivers extend their safe driving years by educating them about DriveSharp, created by researchers at Posit Science and provided by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.
Friday: Life After Driving
Media Resources
Endorsing Organizations
The following organizations have endorsed Older Driver Safety Awareness Week and will be publicizing and participating in events throughout the country.