Depending on your healthcare discipline, whether you are working in a team, as well as whether you are in a rural or urban environment, your role may include many of the following responsibilities:
- Initiating the topic of driving cessation with older adult patients and their family/friend carers, early on, when cognitive concerns are first raised, even prior to a potential diagnosis of dementia.
- Recognizing that although a diagnosis of dementia does not always necessitate immediate driving cessation, all people with dementia will have to stop driving at some point due to the associated safety risks.
- Understanding that a diagnosis of dementia means that you must ask the person with dementia if they are still driving and if so, assess and document their fitness to drive.
- Following your provincial regulations about reporting patients who you deem unfit to drive and if the person with dementia is deemed fit to continue driving, reassess their fitness to drive every 6 months.
- Recognizing challenges throughout the process and facilitating ongoing discussions that address the practical, emotional, and physical impact of driving cessation on everyone involved, including your own emotional drain.
- Providing support for practical and emotional needs after driving cessation.
Use these links or the menu on the left-hand side of the website to learn strategies and find resources.
Here are some opportunities for additional learning: