Elderly Drivers and Community Mobility

April 23, 2014
by Jen

Classes Diversity What are OS/OT?

In my leadership capstone course, we had an interesting discussion on elderly drivers and community mobility. I found it interesting that although senior drivers are safest compared to other drivers on the road, they are more likely to be injured or killed in an accident. I am not sure of the exact reason for this, but I believe it could be because their health may already be compromised due to their old age. I also think a reason they may be more likely to be injured or killed when involved in an accident (even if they are not the reason for the accident) is that their reflexes may be slower so they are not able to protect themselves as quickly. There are a number of barriers that elderly drivers face. One of them mentioned in the forum was how unmet transportation needs are linked to reduced well-being. This reminded me of a client I had who used a ride share program to get to their therapy appointments. Although they valued therapy sometimes their ride would be very early or very late in picking them up and dropping them off. This became quite a problem because it greatly interfered with how they spent their time. Instead of coming to therapy for an hour session, they frequently would get dropped off up to 45 minutes before therapy and not get picked up until an hour after therapy ended. This caused the time they dedicated to therapy each week to become almost 3 hours (with most of the time being waiting for their ride) instead of spending their time doing things they would like to do. I hope in the near future these types of issues will become less common for older adults.

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