Most families are concerned that if their loved one with dementia drives, they might get lost. They know that their loved one’s memory is changing, and are concerned that they will forget where they are going and/or forget how to get home.
Those are legitimate concerns because we know that one of the primary cognitive skills that change in dementia is memory skills. But in the nearly ten years that I have been doing senior driving assessments, I see that there are bigger concerns than memory.
You see, the DAWN Method taught me that in addition to memory skills, people with dementia are also losing rational thinking skills and attention skills. What this means in relation to driving is significant.
Rational thinking skills are what give us the ability to analyze and interpret information, and use the various elements of cognition to make good decisions. Rational thinking skills are what allow a driver to come to a construction zone and be able to navigate through it correctly. These skills allow a driver to encounter a detour and use a combination of memory and analysis to get back on the right road after traversing the detour. Rational thinking skills allow a driver to quickly respond, in the safest way, when something unexpected occurs, such as a child running out to get a ball that has rolled in the street. So, diminishing rational thinking skills put drivers with dementia at risk to not respond quickly or accurately when something unexpected or different happens while driving.
Attention skills are what allow a driver to keep their focus on driving. Attention skills allow a driver to get their attention back to driving quickly after they become distracted. This is obviously important while driving, and a real concern when dementia makes our attention skills less keen. When doing driving assessments, I see someone who looks away at a sign on the side of the road and begins to drift into the other lane while looking away. Or someone who notices a new store in their neighborhood shopping center and looks away for a time but does not notice the pedestrian crossing the street in front of them.
The decline in all three of these cognitive skills: memory skills, rational thinking skills, and attention skills, put folks with dementia at elevated risk for traffic crashes. There are occasions when people early in the dementia process can still drive safely, but by the time families are noticing changes in memory, we should be concerned about the other crucial skills of rational thinking and attention and how they may be affecting driving safety.
Reach out if you have questions about your loved one and their driving. We are happy to help.
Jill
