Four Tips to Keep Your Senior from Driving if Cognitive Challenges Are Getting Worse
Cognitive changes mean that your senior’s brain doesn’t work the same way that it did in the past. This might be due to dementia or other causes, but the result is that your elderly family member may not be able to do things like drive any longer. She may not agree, though.
Senior Care in Spanish Fort AL: Stopping Driving While Cognitively Challenged
Get Some Help from Her Doctor
Some aging adults won’t listen when you try to talk about not driving, but there may be another answer. If your elderly family member puts a lot of stock in what her doctor recommends, then it might be time to ask her doctor to speak up about driving. This can make the situation a lot easier because it’s no longer you telling your senior that she can’t drive. This becomes her doctor recommending that she hang up her keys.
Time Your Conversations Carefully
Cognitive changes mean that your elderly family member may have good moments and some that are less helpful in terms of really communicating with her. If you can time your conversations for those times when your senior is better able to understand what you’re talking about, that’s going to pay off better dividends. Give her the facts and make sure she knows that you’re trying to do what’s safest and best for her.
Do Something with the Keys
At some point you may have to do more than talk. Removing the keys from your senior’s ability to access them can be an important part of keeping her from driving. This may not go over well with her, but it can be a way to ensure that she doesn’t hop in the car and continue to drive even after you’ve talked about it. In a worst-case scenario, you may also need to do something with the car.
Make Sure She Has Options She Can’t Ignore
The best option is to make sure that your elderly family member has a way to get where she wants to go, even if that means she’s not the one driving. Bringing in elderly care providers to do the driving ensures that your senior has the help when she needs it and that she’s going to be less likely to try to drive herself. She may not be as thrilled about this suggestion as you hope, but it’s a way to keep her safe as well as mobile.
These are not always easy conversations to have, but they’re really important. Make sure that you talk openly and lovingly with your senior about what you’re seeing.
If you or someone you know needs Senior Care in Spanish Fort, AL, please contact the friendly caregivers at Hughes Home Care. We provide quality and affordable care for your elderly loved ones in our community. Call Us Today 251-517-9901. Serving Mobile & Baldwin County.
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