EP61: Alzheimer’s Disease and Driving: Five Signs that It’s Time to Take the Keys

<p><strong><em>Alzheimer’s Disease and Driving: Five Signs that It’s Time to Take the Keys</em></strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Welcome to This is Getting Old: Moving Towards an Age-Friendly World, I’m your host Melissa Batchelor, and today I’ll be talking to you about</span> <em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Alzheimer’s Disease and Driving: Five Signs that It’s Time to Take the Keys.</span></em></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">There may come a time when you realize that your parent, or spouse, or loved one isn’t able to drive safely anymore. The tricky part is this delicate balance between allowing them to keep driving and knowing when to take the keys.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the early phase of Alzheimer’s disease, or dementia, many people may be able to continue driving familiar routes, say back and forth to the grocery store or the bank. For most “experienced drivers”, driving is a skill so well learned that it is partly “automatic”. The problem is going to come in when the driver needs to make a quick decision to avoid an unexpected hazard or situation. In fact, a common sign that a person is experiencing a problem with their thinking or memory is indeed a car accident.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Some people will recognize that they are having more difficulty and give their keys up. Other people may fight you to keep the keys. If that’s the situation you find yourself, as a caregiver in, here are some things to have evaluated that can help you make an informed decision, rather than feeling like you’re being the “bad guy”.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Here are the seven things you need to have evaluated. These things can be checked out by working with your primary care provider, seeing if there’s an occupational therapist in your area who evaluates driving skills, and/or your local DMV.</span></p> <p><strong>#1: Good vision</strong><span style= "font-weight: 400;">: Not only will the person need to have good vision, even if