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For Healthcare Providers
Tips for Physicians
Listen to family members and caregivers of
your patient. If any of them express fear of having an accident when
the patient is driving, take a closer look.
To help you broach the topic of driving
with your patient, understand physician interventions and your legal
responsibility, access the
Physician's Guide to Assessing and Counseling Older Drivers, developed by the American Medical
Association in cooperation with the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration.
Perform office-based assessments. See Chapter 3 in the AMA Physician's Guide.
Suggest limiting driving beyond the
neighborhood and confining driving to daylight hours.
Suggest that the family disable the car or
move it out of sight.
Call your state's DMV or send a letter
asking them to contact your patient for a road test. See Chapter 8
of the AMA Physician's Guide for legal requirements by state.
Write a prescription to the patient that
says: "Please go to the Department of Motor Vehicles to have a
driver's evaluation."
Write a prescription for a professional
evaluation by an Occupational Therapist or a Certified Driver
Rehabilitation Specialist (CDRS).
Search the CDRS Directory by state. http://www.driver-ed.org/custom/directory-cdrs/?pageid=320
Search American Ocupational Therapist
Association's Driver Program Database.
http://www.aota.org/memservices/drive_search/index.aspx
A series of web seminars, available 24/7 on
demand, are offered by the National Resource Center for Safe Aging
with the American Society on Aging funded by the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration. These online seminars address the
challenges facing counselors, social workers, care managers and
others who work with families of older drivers (CME credit
availabe). Courses include: When Driving is a Problem: Talking to
Families About Difficult Decisions, Aging and Driver Wellness:
Medical Conditions That Can Affect Driving, and "Promoting Safety
and Independence through Older Driver Wellness." http://www.asaging.org/webseminars/websem.cfm?EventID=6097
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From the Media and Policy Center:
Getting
Around: Alternatives for Seniors Who No Longer Drive
This DVD, hosted by Jerry Mathers, tackles
the challenge of developing mobility options and helping older, at-risk drivers
plan for and transition to life-after-driving. Focusing on the mobility needs
of our nation's elders, this 30-minute program addresses the issues that
older drivers and their families face in a society so wedded to the car.
Now available at the Media and Policy Center's online store
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