Driving and the elderly

I attended an Alzheimer partnership meeting last week. Dr. Bob Stern from BUAD Research Center gave an update on driving and elders. Privilege to drive means INDEPENDENCE. For this reason, it is hard to terminate one's own driving never mind have to terminate another's. Most elders today are more self monitoring and stop driving when they feel their vision, hearing, strength, flexibility and ability to be attentive to their surroundings is impaired.
Driving and dementia is another story. People are often unaware of their deficits and continue to drive. However, many impairments in dementia make this hazardous. Slow intake and processing of information in the environment, insigtht, judgment, ability to attend to a task, spatial skills, contrast sensitivity, problem solving etc are all challenged in Alzheimer's. Seventy percent of people with Alzheimer's live in the community and twenty percent live alone. The question is, Who is driving?
Dr. Stern reviewed the testing that is done both real and simulated. All had their flaws. His team is working on devising a simple short tool that could be used in an office that would help determine the safety of a person continuing to drive. The team is looking for 55-95 year olds with and without memory loss who would be subjects in this study. It requires testing at the Center and an on the road driving evaluation. We all need to promote research participation to develop this tool.
He added that the law just passed to address the driving and elder challenge is not much different from what is already practiced in Massachusetts. People 75 don't need to be retested as suggested, AARP was against any age descrimination at all, and eye exams were all that would be required every five years as is already the case.
The talk generated much discussion and questions.
I'm in a study at BUADRC; the HOPE program, trying to see what normal cognitive changes in aging are and which are signs of cognitive decline.