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Empowering Programs for People with Dementia
and Their Care Partners - The Driving and
Dementia Project
Interview with:
*************************************************************
Synopsis of project:
Title: DRIVING AND DEMENTIA PROJECT
Website:
http://www.granddriver.net/
Background: in the US, more than 25 million people are in the
country's 70-plus age group. This group grew twice as fast as the
total population from 1990 to 2000,
according to the National Highway
Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA).
Unfortunately, statistics also show that
older drivers have a higher rate of fatal
crashes per miles driven than all but the
youngest of drivers. This is due to changes
that occur as a part of the process of
aging: changes in vision, ability to
concentrate, and reaction time.
Solution: to address this problem, the
Virginia Department for the Aging (VDA)
has been working with the Department of
Motor Vehicles (DMV) to educate older
drivers and their families about the effects
of aging on driving skills. VDA has also
partnered with the Greater
Richmond Chapter of the Alzheimer's
Association to produce "When
to Yield: Questions and Answers about
Dementia and Driving."
Collaborating Organizations:
·
Virginia’s Department for the Aging (VDA)
·
Virginia’s Department of Motor Vehicles (VDMV)
·
United States Department of Transportation
Highway Safety Funds
·
Greater Richmond Alzheimer’s Association (GRAA)
·
Administration on Aging
Need triggered by:
·
high profile newscasts about older drivers
and traffic accidents
·
concerns that states would implement severe
legislation regarding older drivers.
Rationale:
·
Age plays a factor in driving difficulties (vision, hearing and
reaction times are impaired)
·
Dementia gradually multiplies these problems
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The Driving and Dementia
Project has come to be a model for other
states and truly represents the symbol of
successful partnership across several
Virginian organizations. What exactly were
the "deliverables" and how did you
make these happen?
JH and SP: Basically, our execution process
revolved around the structure:
What? Why? How? and DO IT!
WHAT?
DISCUSS PROBLEM:
VDA and the GRAA met to share concerns and
explore the issue of driving and dementia.
WHY?
SUBSTANTIATE NEED:
find sufficient data to support priority of
problem.
HOW?
FORMULATE SOLUTION:
get team to build response to need.
GOAL:
 The
final goal of this project was to create a
user friendly booklet for families and
caregivers of Virginia’s older drivers
suspected of suffering from early dementia.
This booklet was to be simple yet provide
useful information to individuals, family
members, caregivers and healthcare
professionals.
DO IT!
VDA and GRAA met with the Department of
Motor Vehicles to brainstorm what the
contents of these booklets should be.
These included personal experience of
clients, DMV laws, Alzheimer's Association
information and input from Medical Care
providers (physicians).
EXECUTE:
-
RESEARCH AND CALIBRATION:
get input from VDA, GRAA, and DMV on AD,
driving regulations, reporting
procedures, options, caregiving issues
and networking to implement plan;
assess, compile and calibrate input
towards construction of comprehensive
solution
-
FIND FUNDS:
we developed a plan to find and secure
funds to leverage the publication of the
guide for caregivers and families
-
DEVELOP “PRODUCT”:
build
the actual booklet
-
MARKET and IMPLEMENT:
advertise/distribute coupled with
training:
-
All four Alzheimer's Association chapter
to incorporate this booklet into their caregiver/other trainings
-
DMV to have this publication available at all
regional offices around the state
-
VDA to have the booklet available at its
headquarters and at the 25 Area Agencies
on Aging
USE THE BOOKLET AS A TOOL:
·
Help assess the driving skills of a person with dementia
·
Identify some of the warning signs
·
Tools/tips on how to reduce the older person’s need to drive
·
How to get the older driver involved in decision-making in the
early planning stages
·
Create a “Driving Agreement” between the older driver and
their family or caregivers
·
Determine how to work with the older person’s physician
·
Last resort – how to take away the keys
·
Where to find support in dealing with an older driver
·
How to report concerns to DMV
THE TEAMWORK PROCESS:
·
Meetings were held between VDA, GRAA and DMV to discuss the
content of the publication.
·
DMV provided information on how they can help the
caregiver/family member.
·
VDA provided the "bridge" between DMV and GRAA.
·
GRAA provided the content of the booklet as well as its
design and layout.
It is very easy to imagine solutions but more than often, it is
difficult to
build them. What were the obstacles, if any, and
how did you manage to address them?
JH and SP: We really did not confront
any obstacles other than being able to
“package” the booklet in a manner that
allowed for an easy read yet provide maximum
comprehension of the material (especially
since we had to incorporate various
information that related to legal issues,
etc.).
From the standpoint of building collaborative projects, what did
you learn from this endeavor?
JH and SP: We all learned to "think outside
of the box" when looking for partners. All
of the agencies involved were dealing with
the same issues: how to make driving
safer for ALL Virginians. By pooling
our combined knowledge and resources, we
were able to create a much better, more
concise product. It also vastly enlarged
our capabilities to distribute the
information and broadened the audience that
we might normally expect to reach.
What tools are you using to evaluate the outcomes of such projects?
JH and SP: We are actually using three
elements: quantitative measurements,
training and feedback (qualitative).
MEASUREMENT
The DMV keeps track of:
-
numbers of older drivers with drivers licenses, their ages,
number of accidents
-
number of seniors who voluntarily give up their licenses,
-
number of seniors evaluated at the request of their
physicians or families, etc.
The Virginia Department for the Aging keeps
track of the number of calls received
regarding this issue as well as number of
booklets/publications that are being sent
out.
TRAINING:
GRAA has incorporated this information into its
regular training sessions and keeps track of
how many people attend these sessions.
FEEDBACK: we review responses from family members,
caregivers, physicians, etc. who have used
and assessed this tool.
Would you contemplate a PHASE II this project and if so, what
would this be?
JH and SP: Most definitely! As part of
this second phase, we have already produced
a
brochure designed specifically for the
Healthcare Professional.
Hmmm.... why would
you design one just for the healthcare
professionals?
JH and SP: This is actually part of the plan
- in which we target the education of doctors
just as we target that of the general
audience/caregivers/families. It is
imperative that we create a teamwork
environment where physicians, nurses, etc.
are trained to
LISTEN to the families' concerns,
be responsible and provide useful
information and resources of this caliber to
families, caregivers and patients.
Do you have any opportunity to "exchange notes" on these projects
with your counterparts from other states?
JH: In July 2004, I spoke at the
International Alzheimer's Association
Conference in Philadelphia about the "When
To Yield" booklet. I also spoke at the
American Society on Aging (ASA) Conference
about this. In both sessions folks were
excited about the odd partnership of DMV
with Aging and Alzheimer's (we used National
Highway Transportation Safety Administration
(NHSTA) funding through DMV for both of
these projects). We had a terrific response
and we were able to provide several of our
counterparts with specific information and
models on how to develop and implement
similar programs in their own states.
What would you say are the ingredients of a successful
partnership?
All partners need to commit to being
responsive, available, be willing to listen
and share information, be open to new ideas
and collaborations.
Let's hypothesize for a moment... and consider that resources are
not an issue. What collaborative
projects - at the state level - would you
begin building tomorrow?
JH and SP: We would say, sources for low
cost, quality dementia specific long term
care/housing.
Any other relevant projects that you may be working on and could
be mentioned in this interview?
JH and SP: Of course - we have several that
are worth identifying here!
Thank you very much, Janet
and Sherry, and best of continued success to
both of you! We look forward to
learning more from you!
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PARTNERING FOR SUCCESS
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