National Volunteer Week Part 2 of 6: Frank J. Kormos, “The Outstanding Older Texan”

by Leah Scanlan AARP Driver Safety Program

Meet Frank.

 Frank has been volunteering in some way since he was 20 years old.

Today, at age 96, Frank is AARP Texas’ oldest volunteer and has 76 years of volunteer experience under his belt.

 Frank started volunteering for the AARP Driver Safety Program in September of 1989. Over the past 21 years, he has served as an Instructor, Assistant State Coordinator, Associate State Coordinator, and most recently a Marketing Specialist for the AARP Driver Safety Program. He has instructed over 150 classes during his volunteer career.

 In 1993, Frank received the “Outstanding Older Texan Award” from the management of the Richardson Senior Center where he taught courses.

As a Marketing Specialist, Frank devotes 20-45 hours a week to answering emails, writing advertisements, assisting other DSP volunteers, and researching new ways to get the word out about the AARP Driver Safety Program. More recently, Frank has embraced social media and has begun using Facebook to reach out to prospective students and volunteers.

 When asked what the most rewarding part about being an AARP Driver Safety Program is Frank replied, “The ability to persuade someone to attend a class that can potentially teach him or her things that will save his or her life.”

 He goes on to explain that the course is much more than just giving people discounts on car insurance. “This course is about saving lives.”

 Frank, the AARP DSP staff would like to thank you for your 21 years of dedication to the AARP Driver Safety Program. You have helped to promote safer driving and make a real difference in the lives of people in your Texas community.

 Do you have a volunteer that you would like to see profiled on our Facebook page? If so, please drive@aarp.org.

For more information on volunteer opportunities with the AARP Driver Safety Program visit: www.aarp.org/driversafetyvolunteers.

When Elderly Drivers Must Stop Driving - NYTimes.com

Image via CrunchBase
By JANE GROSS

In my many years of reporting about the elderly, I found little that caused doctors more angst than confronting a patient and family about driving. When is it time for someone with physical or cognitive problems to give up the car keys? Who makes that decision? And how can it safely and compassionately be enforced?

Late into the fray, but with a comprehensive and thoughtful handbook, is the American Medical Association, in collaboration with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Recently updated, the “A.M.A. Physician’s Guide to Assessing and Counseling Older Drivers” is an invaluable addition to the literature on the subject, directed to its own members but accessible and informative to the layperson as well.

The guidebook has plenty of information about assessing a patient’s driving ability; medications and medical conditions that impair mobility, vision, hearing, reflexes and judgment; tips on having the conversation with patients and caregivers; advice on how to avoid isolation and dependence when driving is no longer sensible or safe; discussion of a doctor’s ethical responsibilities; and state-by-state guidelines for reporting drivers to the state department of motor vehicles, which has the ultimate say in who remains on the road.

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Growing Ranks of Older Drivers Among Safest on Florida Roads

Image via Wikipedia
By Angel Streeter

Older adults are rolling. They are the fastest-growing segment of drivers nationwide.

They will drive more miles than previous generations and long into old age.

That may make some people skittish as they envision grandmotherly types inching along the highway with their heads barely above the steering wheel.

But no need to worry: Older adults are among the safest drivers on the roads, according to state and national statistics.

State crash statistics shows that older adults have fewer crashes than young people, who have the highest crash rates, but also fewer than drivers in their 30s, 40s and 50s.

In 2009, the crash rate for 65-year-old Florida drivers was 106.75 per 10,000 licensed drivers. At 75, it was 98.27 and at 85, it was 88.85.

Compare that to 20-year-old drivers at 348.58 crashes per 10,000 licensed drivers. At 40, it was 205.7. At 50, it was 172.86.

That trend bears out nationally as well.
Full Article

Driving Simulators Help Older Adults Improve Their Road Skills

Older drivers could benefit from training programs that put them behind the wheel - in a driving simulator, with an observer who helps them develop their skills. That's the conclusion of a new article published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

Older people are at much higher risk of car crashes than younger drivers. Some states and provinces test older drivers, hoping to get the riskiest drivers off the road. But the tests they use are inadequate, says Normand Teasdale of Université Laval in Québec, who cowrote the study with Pierre-Luc Gamache, Carol Hudon, and Martin Simoneau. Some governments only test vision; others test cognition, too. In some cases, on-the-road tests also are required.

But none of these tests is enough - they lack accuracy, sensitivity and specificity. To drive effectively, you not only have to be able to see, hear, and think about what's going on - you also have to be able to turn this sensory input into the right action, like stepping on the brake when you see a red light ahead of you. (And not stepping on the gas instead, a common mistake.)

Teasdale and his colleagues think a better approach is to help older adults improve their skills through the use of proper training using a driving simulator and appropriate feedbacks. In experiments, they've found that coaching helps older drivers improve. For example, in one experiment, older adults were tested on the road, then coached in a driving simulator. "We actually walk them through their errors by showing them their own response," Teasdale says. Then the drivers were tested again on the road - without coaching - and their driving improved. "After the training, they really were aware of why they were making errors and what not to do."

Older people should be able to treat driving the way they do golf or tennis, Teasdale says. "Elderly people, if they want, can pick up the phone and they'll have a golf pro or a tennis pro that will gladly help them for as many hours as they want, on the same day." Driving is just another set of motor skills, but there's no such service for driving. The services that are available are mostly to test older people and tell them if they aren't fit to drive anymore. "So I fully understand why older individuals are reluctant to get into this," Teasdale says.

Teasdale and his colleagues hope that coaches and driving simulators can be made available to more older drivers who are worried about their safety on the road. These methods may help keep older drivers behind the wheel longer without compromising road safety.

Source:
Keri Chiodo
Association for Psychological Science

Driving Simulators Help Older Adults Improve Their Road Skills

Elderly Couple Found Frozen to Death After Getting Lost During Drive

By Mary Pat Flaherty - Washington Post

Jo Rinehart arrived at her parents' home and knew the empty driveway and locked house were bad signs. When she went inside, she saw that her mother's cellphone had been forgotten on a kitchen counter. It was filled with worried, frantic and plaintive messages from Rinehart and her siblings, all left in the previous 12 hours.

Rinehart's parents, William Fresch, 85, and his wife, Betty, 79, had not been seen or heard from since about 5:15 p.m. Friday, when they left Rinehart's home in Mechanicsburg, Pa., for what was usually a 40-minute drive back to their house in Shippensburg, Pa., 25 miles north of the Maryland border.

The grown children had brokered a deal that might sound all too familiar to adult children trying to protect - and yet, respect - aging parents. The Fresches could keep their car, but drive only to Rinehart's home or around Shippensburg, and only if they called to say they had made it back home safely.

After she didn't find her parents at their house, Rinehart, 54, and her husband called police, who put out a regional alert for the couple. Rinehart and her husband talked to reporters, posted her parents' pictures on Facebook and searched roadways themselves, even going up in a private helicopter Tuesday to scour the area.

By 11 a.m. Tuesday, their wait was over, Her parents' bodies had been found. Authorities think William and Betty froze to death in a steep farm field off rural Gene Hemp Road in Frederick County, Md.
Full Article

Holidays a Good Time for Driving Skills Assessment - Determining When to Limit/Stop Drive Time of Loved Ones - Elinor Ginzler - AARP

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by: Elinor Ginzler | from: AARP

With the number of drivers 70 and older increasing — and one in five Americans caring for an older loved one — the number of adult children concerned about their parents' driving abilities is on the rise.

If you have any concerns, your first stop should be to learn the warning signs of diminished driving skills, then get in the car and observe. Some of the warning signs:

• Easily distracted while driving.

• Hitting curbs.

• Having trouble merging onto lanes.

• Poor judgment making left turns.

• Failing to follow traffic signs and signals.

Looking for patterns is the key. Once you get the facts and educate yourself, you'll be in a better position to identify problems and suggest solutions.

Full Article

Keeping Us Safe: Beyond Driving with Dignity; The workbook for the families of older drivers

Do you think your older loved-one may be experiencing diminishing driving skills due to the aging process? Are they becoming lost in familiar places, bumping into curbs, mailboxes, or scraping the sides of the garage when they back out? Have they been involved in a minor parking lot fender-bender or do they complain about being honked at? Do they seem easily confused or more forgetful when you talk with them on the phone?

If so, don’t panic; you’re certainly not alone. The most important thing to remember is that the time to start addressing your concerns is now, before “concerns” turn into “tragedies”.

To help you do that, Keeping Us Safe has released its long awaited workbook titled “Beyond Driving with Dignity; The workbook for the families of older drivers”. The workbook employs a very user-friendly, uncomplicated method and is designed to be used in the comfort and confidence of the family’s home.

“Beyond Driving with Dignity” was written to help families (or professionals working with families) by providing them with a “roadmap to success” in their quest to overcome the challenges of an older driver’s safety.

If driving restrictions or even a complete retirement from driving are deemed appropriate, the “Limit Driving, Not Living” chapter of the workbook helps the family identify and implement alternative means of transportation for the retiring driver.

To learn more about how the workbook can help your family or client, please visit Keeping Us Safe or call us toll-free at 877-907-8841.

Matt Gurwell
Founder & CEO
Keeping Us Safe

Keeping Us Safe: Beyond Driving with Dignity; The workbook for the families of older drivers