{"id":335,"date":"2016-01-09T17:54:20","date_gmt":"2016-01-09T17:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/?p=335"},"modified":"2016-08-11T03:59:37","modified_gmt":"2016-08-11T03:59:37","slug":"the-myths-of-senior-driving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/?p=335","title":{"rendered":"THE MYTHS OF SENIOR DRIVING"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SENIOR<\/a><\/p>\n

There have been numerous articles written about senior driving, however most of them have one thing in common —\u00a0\u00a0the overzealous desire to ensure that the independence of the senior citizen is preserved at any price.<\/span> <\/em>Many of these articles favor preserving the rights of seniors who may be compromised in their ability to drive.\u00a0\u00a0They are written by extremely caring geriatric care managers with degrees in social service, writing from their heart, but not necessarily weighing the risks involved.\u00a0\u00a0I call this the \u201cbleeding heart\u201d analysis, and frankly it\u2019s dangerous.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here are a few simple facts. In our mobile society, it is certainly critical for seniors to be able to leave their homes to commute to shop, go to supermarkets, senior activities,\u00a0church, etc.\u00a0\u00a0Mass transit is not always readily available, and due to budget constraints, bus services have been severely curtailed in many communities. Senior transportation services exist, but are often inconvenient or inaccessible and seniors do not necessarily have the disposable income to take taxis. These issues exist and there is no simple solution.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

As for family members, some may not live close by to their parents but may not be available to help.\u00a0 Sometimes, family members who do live close by may not want their lives disrupted by constantly having to drive relatives around.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although the issues are a problem for senior mobility, they fail to address the one reality that\u00a0cannot be denied.\u00a0\u00a0Seniors \u201cdo not want to admit that they are no longer able to drive safely\u201d when their vision deteriorates or their reflexes are no longer adequate due to\u00a0physical limitations.\u00a0\u00a0Seniors often do not recognize when early stage dementia has set in or choose not to admit it.\u00a0 They do not desire to give up their independence and be forced to rely on other people or services for transportation.\u00a0\u00a0Underlying all of these reasons is their fragile egos, where they focus solely on their needs and don\u2019t see the risk that they present to others.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The harsh reality is that every time that a senior with early stage dementia or severe disability sets foot in a vehicle,\u00a0\u00a0he or she is putting his or her life in danger and, more importantly, putting the life of innocent people at risk.<\/span> \u00a0<\/em>To state this in simple terms, putting others lives in danger to preserve the fragile ego of the elderly is too high a price for society to pay.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two recent episodes with clients demonstrate the critical nature of this issue.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Example 1:\u00a0\u00a0A senior citizen was whose only other family was an elderly sister, was driving down to the Jersey Shore to visit a friend.\u00a0\u00a0She exited the highway at the correct exit, but then had an episode.\u00a0\u00a0She could not remember where she was going. She become highly agitated and crashed the vehicle into the side of a retail building. An ambulance arrived and she was taken to a local hospital. Her car was towed to the police lot. In the end, she was transferred to a nursing home, where she remained for approximately one year until her passing a few months ago.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0Example 2:\u00a0\u00a0We had been working with a family for years.\u00a0\u00a0The mother had been in decline for some time with advanced dementia.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0On several occasions, she had left her home to go shopping and called a family member to tell them that she had gotten lost and could not remember the way home.\u00a0\u00a0We advised the family to \u201ctake away her keys\u201d before she got into a serious accident or worse.\u00a0\u00a0The mother refused to relinquish her keys. She would not accept her dementia, insisted that she was fine and was not going to stop driving.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The family lacked the fortitude to deal with the situation.\u00a0\u00a0Several weeks later, she was driving a few blocks from her house, lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a neighbor\u2019s home, totaling the car. \u00a0After this episode, she finally gave up driving!<\/strong><\/p>\n

============================================================<\/strong><\/p>\n

We could cite numerous other similar cases.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Division of Motor Vehicles is reluctant to revoke the license of a senior citizen because of the concern about age discrimination complaints from senior advocacy groups.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The police may issue summons to senior citizens if laws are violated, but it has been my experience that police officers also feel uncomfortable in these situations.\u00a0\u00a0Even judges are lax in forcing senior citizens to retake a driver\u2019s test.\u00a0\u00a0All of this is well and good, until there is a major accident involving a senior and a life is lost unnecessarily, a tragedy that could have been prevented.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Children of seniors are reluctant advocates because they do not want to upset their parents for a variety of reasons.\u00a0\u00a0On the one hand, they sensitive to the loss of independence that their parents may be experiencing.\u00a0\u00a0They also may not wish to jeopardize any possible inheritance, not pleasant, but it\u2019s a variable.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They don\u2019t want to alienate a parent, to incur their wrath, and risk damaging a wonderful, loving relationship.\u00a0\u00a0Children are also concerned that the burden will fall on them.\u00a0\u00a0So the children sit by and let nature take its course.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And maybe after mom or dad has three accidents in a six -month period, the children will finally act.\u00a0\u00a0Or maybe they won\u2019t!<\/strong><\/p>\n

I know that this blog is not going to win any popularity contests with senior citizens.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The truth often hurts, but it is still the truth!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Yes, we need to improve the availability of alternative transportation in our communities for seniors.\u00a0\u00a0But in the meantime, we have to be cognizant of the problems with senior driving and be vigilant about protecting the lives of the innocent victims that may be on the other side of the road.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There have been numerous articles written about senior driving, however most of them have one thing in common —\u00a0\u00a0the overzealous desire to ensure that the independence of the senior citizen is preserved at any price. Many of these articles favor preserving the rights of seniors who may be compromised in their ability to drive.\u00a0\u00a0They are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=335"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":341,"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335\/revisions\/341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pearlsofwisdom.guru\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}