Restricted licence.
The use of restricted or endorsed licences to restrict the distance travelled has not been proven to be a safe or effective strategy and commonly gives a false sense of security to drivers with dementia and their Doctors, based on the very erroneous expectation that people with dementia will not have problems if they remain in familiar surroundings.
Almost all older drivers with restricted licences are medically unfit to drive!
How to stop an older person from driving! Nobody wants to!
They are given these restricted licences as social excuse to prevent them being stranded without a car even though they are severely impaired and pose a major risk on the road.
Many of these older drivers with restricted licences have very poor vision and hearing, can barely walk with a frame, are extremely slow in mobility, reflexes and thinking, on multiple sedative medications and pain killers including narcotics, can barely turn their head to check blind spots, and are confused.
Also having somebody act like a “co-pilot” in the passenger seat to assist the driver with dementia is an unsafe practice and does not reduce the crash risk.
Unfortunately I still see patients whose driving licence has been cancelled but they are still driving without a licence because of lack of insight, denial and memory loss. When they are challenged about this their common response is “I don’t need a licence Doctor- I only drive locally down to the shops!”
Medications that can affect driving performance include cardiac medications which can lower blood pressure and cause dizziness, sedatives, sleeping pills, anti-depressants, psychotropics, narcotic analgesics and other pain killers, which can make the person drowsy, confused, all of which can impair reflexes, concentration, information processing and driving performance.
For more information read Dr Peter Lipski’s book “Your Elderly Parents Failing Health. Is It Ageing Or A Treatable Condition”.