To Drive or Not to Drive

The decision to take away the privilege to drive often becomes a very difficult one for family members of Alzheimer’s patients.  Removal of driving privileges decreases the person’s independence and usually is strongly resisted.

Amazingly, the AD patient often can pull themselves together long enough to pass a driver’s test, even one that requires actual road test.  So it frequently isn’t apparent to Motor Vehicle Department personnel that this person could be a danger to themselves and other drivers.

The family usually is left in the position of literally taking the keys away from their AD family member, disabling the car or removing the car.  Shortly after we became concerned about my mother driving, she had an accident.  Her car wasn’t driveable any longer and I wouldn’t get her another one.  Eventually the desire to drive faded away once she realized others would do this for her and she wasn’t stranded in her home.

With my father-in-law, his sons had to take his keys away.  When he found a spare one he’d hidden away, they disabled the car.  Then he decided to get it repaired.  Fortunately he agreed to loan it to a son who was having car trouble.  Eventually he, too, became accustomed to being driven. 

(In both these cases, there wasn’t a spouse to take over the driving.)

More information about taking driving privileges away from an AD patient can be obtained from the Alzheimer’s Associations.  (www.alz.org )