Older Driver Safety Awareness Week

Driving is a significant factor for quality of life and independence for the older adult. On the other hand, driving is a complex task involving visual, motor, and cognitive skills that experience age-related changes even in healthy aging. As we age, there can be different age-related functional changes with relevance for driving concerning sensory, motor, and cognitive functions. Since these functions have great interindividual variability, it is necessary to apply methods that help to identify older drivers with impaired driving abilities in order to take appropriate measures.

Complex tasks like driving require different sensory, motor, and cognitive functions and their interaction.

Sensory: Normal aging is associated with structural changes of the eye that lead to reductions in visual acuity and contrast sensitivity and increased glare sensitivity. Peripheral vision is reduced, leading to difficulty with making turns safely. Hearing can also be diminished in the older adult.
Motor Function: With increasing age, muscle strength strongly diminishes, and speed of movement is reduced. This can lead to a slowing of emergency maneuvers with the steering wheel or a prolongation of braking time. Further, trunk and neck flexibility, which is essential for looking back during driving, is massively reduced with age, leading to insufficient detection of targets in the back view.
Cognitive function: Executive functions which takes place in the frontal section part of one’s brain can change with a decline in cognitive function. This is the area where solution of problems, multitasking and coping with unexpected situations is controlled. Driving a car is a typical example of such multitasking since it requires steering and operating the car, observing the traffic, being aware or predicting critical situations, as well as planning, executing, and adapting one’s own behavior

The December holiday season is a perfect time to take note of our seniors’ driving abilities and habits. This time of year is when many families visit elderly parents, grandparents and other loved ones, so you can often get a first-hand look at any problems your elderly loved ones may have while driving.

In honor of Older Driver Safety Awareness Week, consider the following:

Inspect your parent’s car for dings along with the garage.
Ask your parent to drive you somewhere and notice any areas lacking in sensory, motor or cognitive function that may be concerning.
Have a honest conversation with your loved one discussing these concerns.
Suggest getting an independent driving test:
- Occupational therapists, as well as certified driver rehabilitation specialists (CDRSs) can make important recommendations concerning the fitness-to-drive. To assist in formulating these recommendations, occupational therapists usually undertake both off-road (clinic-based) and on-road (in-vehicle) assessments. When conducted together these are referred to as a comprehensive driver evaluation (CDE). They use criteria that are quick and easy to use and provide clinically useful information about a client’s sensory, physical, cognitive–perceptual, and behavioral skills, and have a predictive relationship with the driver’s performance in a car.

The Life Care Managers of Holistic Aging can conduct initial testing to determine if a referral to an OT is needed. They can also offer recommendations on how to approach your elderly loved one regarding this discussion. Families frequently use us as “the bad guy” professional suggesting they get an evaluation so that the adult child can remain supportive and will not be seen for life as the person who took away their license.

How We Can Care for Our Loved Ones

Posted in Aging and tagged driving

Holistic Aging - Options for Elder Care

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Lori Wynn

17:57 10 Jan 21

As a physical therapist over the last year, I have worked with some of the clients of Holistic Aging. The clients are... accompanied by the excellent caregivers of Holistic Aging to their appointments. I have spent a good amount of time witnessing the way that these caregivers attend to their clients. The clients are treated by the staff like they are family. The details of their lives are well known and their well-being is top priority. On numerous occasions, I have needed to communicate with the staff, and this is always seamless. If I had family in need of elder care, I would be eager to have one of these exceptionally caring staff of Holistic Aging be a part of the team.read more

Julie Densmore

19:52 10 Aug 20

The Best Medical Investment and Care Decision Our Family Has MadeI highly recommend Holistic Aging for their Life Care... Manager support of an aging loved one who may be living in the Pittsburgh area. Bobbi and her team of qualified individuals are compassionate and trained in geriatric care management. They have provided unsurpassed medical and general support for my 85 year old mother-in-law (MIL) over the past 2 years while we are living on the West Coast. Their services provide us with peace-of-mind and confidence that our loved one is safe and cared for even when we cannot be present. Their expert care has enabled my MIL to live comfortably alone in her home. They have helped to systematically address and resolve my MILs growing medical issues and ensure that her most pressing challenges are adequately managed. Our life care manager, Kristi - who is a RN - accompanies my MIL to all doctor appointments to ask the right questions during the visit. Kristi maintains a comprehensive picture of my MIL's health conditions and acts as her personal advocate at all doctor visits. We chose Holistic Aging for their fusion of both East and Western treatment modalities that are tailored to the unique individual so along with medical care, my MIL has received acupuncture, nutritional supplements, massage, and myofacial release therapies - all considered to be "alternative" to treatments and normally would not have been offered. However, each of these treatments have majorly improved my MIL's well-being so we welcome the East/West treatment fusion that Holistic Aging provides. We are incredibly grateful and impressed with the service that Holistic Aging provides for our family. I highly recommend them for care of a loved one. Thank you Bobbi and Kristi!read more

Carina Didiano

01:49 20 Aug 18

I just wanted to say how much I appreciate Renee’s work as a nurse with her clients, who are in their early 90’s. I... have worked with her for a while now and she has such a good heart, especially when it comes to her clients well being. She always goes above and beyond for all of them! She deserves the recognition.read more

Dianna Long

01:25 30 Jan 18

Personally sought advice and counsel from the owner - very helpful and knowledgeable about reimbursement and geriatric... aging. Owner keeps up to date on all related geriatric trends and medication trends. True desire to change and help the lives of those aging - to improve the quality of life and ensure maximum reimbursement.read more

Morgan Grimes

20:33 07 Nov 17

Not only does this agency provide excellent care for their cliental, they are a wonderful agency to work for. The... office staff is compassionate and caring not only about their work but their employees as well. The entire staff has very open communication that makes the care individualized and highly affective.read more

Holistic Aging Client

18:23 05 Sep 17

It is difficult to put into words how much Susan’s work with Holistic Aging has meant to our family. After my father... passed away, he left behind our widowed mother, physically weak, depressed and living at some distance from family. She was vulnerable in so many ways, needing help with things including medical and nursing care, physical therapy, transportation, financial protection, troubleshooting and coordinating a complex array of services. We found that we just couldn’t manage everything from a distance, and that what we needed more than anything else was someone acting as Mom’s advocate and coordinating her access to needed supports. Susan stepped in and really took charge of the situation, keeping tabs on everything happening on the medical front, not only making sure that key appointments were made and kept, but also accompanying Mom to them and maintaining organized health reports. Susan ensured that no one was taking financial advantage, that in-home caregivers were providing adequate support, and even that home maintenance problems were addressed. She really made an effort to understand our mother and her unique needs. Susan was willing to play bad cop as necessary, dismissing caregivers who weren’t up to the job, arranging for better ones to be put in place, making sure that physical therapy proceeded on schedule, and pushing back on advice from any service sellers that didn’t serve our mother’s interests. Because Susan was so organized, committed, and pro-active, we are in a much improved situation now: Mom’s health, mental outlook and physical conditioning are all better than they were a couple of years ago. Having Susan there was the closest thing we could manage to actually having a family member on-site to look after our mother.read more

Rebekah Simpson

13:12 19 Oct 16

Bobbi and her team of care manager's have been a "God Send" to our family. My mother has Alzheimer's disease and with... family all over the country, we were not able to assist mom with the needed care she required to continue to live a meaningful life. A friend of ours had used Options For Elder Care services and highly recommend them. They know everything there is to know about Alzheimer's, not only improving my mom's life but realizing the stress of our entire family. We will continue to have challenges as mom progresses through Alzheimer's but feel confident being directed by this care management company.read more

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