Abstract
Current clinical practice in Aged Care Assessment Teams (ACATs) in NSW and ACT regarding assessment of fitness to drive in clients with a diagnosis of dementia was examined. Of 42 ACATs with a geriatrician on staff, 38 (90.5%) responded to a telephone survey. Results showed that assessment of driver fitness is largely a medically based procedure, with functional on-road assessment of driver competence occurring in 42.1% of ACATs. Use of the Mini Mental Status Examination in determining the severity of dementia and impact on driving was common (94.7%), although such predictive ability has not been demonstrated Few ACATs (36.8%) systematically review drivers despite likely disease progression. 73.7% of ACATs reported experience of clients continuing to drive against advice. Approaches to assessment in city and rural ACATs are compared.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 111-114 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | Australian Journal on Ageing |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Aug-1996 |
Keywords
- dementia
- driving competence
- older drivers
- physician's evaluation
- MINI-MENTAL-STATE
- ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE
- OLDER DRIVERS
- VEHICLE CRASHES
- ROAD