Older Driver Safety Awareness Week Seeks to Empower Seniors

Older Driver Safety Awareness Week, which begins today, encourages families to have conversations about aging and driving before something serious happens or before mobility becomes an issue for older family members.

Related: Adaptive Devices Can Ease the Drive, Ride for Seniors

The week started in 2009 as an initiative of the American Occupational Therapy Association. Its goal, said Katie Riley, media relations manager for AOTA, is to “raise awareness that there really are a lot of steps between realizing there’s a problem or a challenge that’s arisen with driving to giving up the keys.”

AOTA purposely chose December to promote older driver safety awareness, she added, because families gather for the holidays, providing an opportunity for observation and discussion of driver safety issues with mature family members.

Empowering seniors and their families is one of AOTA’s goals, said Elin Schold Davis, project coordinator for AOTA’s Older Driver Initiative. Older Driver Safety Awareness Week aims to empower mature drivers by encouraging them to anticipate what their needs might be as they age and more importantly, offering solutions to issues they might encounter, she said.

“Looking to the future and what declining health means is not being negative, it’s being proactive,” Schold Davis said.

To that end, Older Driver Safety Awareness Week highlights five topics that impact mature drivers, kicking off with anticipating the physical and mental changes that can affect driving. As people age they experience physical, sensory and cognitive changes. And just as we plan for retirement, we should also plan for aging changes, Schold Davis said.

According to AARP, these are some of the changes older drivers might experience:
*Changes in vision including reduced field of vision, diminished night vision and sensitivity to glare, and common conditions like glaucoma, macular degeneration and cataracts

• Hearing loss
• Increasing fragility, diminished strength
• Arthritis
• Reduced range of motion
• Medical conditions and medications
• Changes in cognition

By anticipating those changes, older drivers can investigate solutions that may keep them on the road longer, Schold Davis said, adding that occupational therapists, especially those who specialize in driver rehab, can help drivers find answers to challenges caused by medical or physical issues.

Solutions may include exercises to improve agility and strength, adaptive equipment, annual eye and physical checkups, understanding medications [JN4]and how they may affect driving, engaging in mental fitness exercises and simply continuing to drive.

Schold Davis said that studies have shown that when both partners in a marriage retire, the man often takes over most or all of the driving duties; when he dies his widow often finds herself hesitant to get behind the wheel again. Just as with any other skill, if you don’t drive regularly your abilities diminish. Schold Davis advises both spouses to keep driving, splitting it evenly.

Another solution that many mature drivers embrace is limiting their driving, Riley said. They drive during non-peak traffic times, use intersections with traffic lights or stop signs to make left turns and avoid driving after dark. Making adjustments like these helps mature drivers realize “that just because you’ve been diagnosed with something or you’re realizing you’re getting older, it’s not the guillotine to end all driving,” Riley said.

Older Driver Safety Awareness Week also showcases how to initiate family conversations about driving (Tuesday), working with an occupational therapist (Wednesday), adaptive equipment (Thursday) and how to cope with driving less or giving up the keys (Friday). For each topic, AOTA’s website provides a podcast discussion, an article and links to resources.

Ultimately, both women said, Older Driver Safety Awareness Week seeks to empower mature drivers and their families through information and education.