What Can Your Senior Do to Prove She’s Safe to Drive?

You might be worried about your senior’s driving and yet she may not share those concerns. If your elderly family member is determined to keep driving safely, these tips might help her to do so for a little bit longer.

Take a Defensive Driving Course for Seniors

Defensive driving courses that are designed specifically for aging adults help to focus on the areas that truly concern your elderly family member. They help her to brush up on her driving skills and refresh some information that may be outdated. It’s likely been quite a while since your senior first learned to drive and a lot has changed on the road and in the driver’s manual since then. As a bonus, these types of courses often offer a discount for your senior on her car insurance.

Keep up with Health Checks

Your senior’s health is what’s going to be one of the primary considerations when it comes to continuing to drive. So keeping up with her regular health checks, particularly hearing and vision tests, is going to help a lot. Your senior should also make sure that she’s doing everything that she needs to do in order to manage chronic health conditions so that she’s as healthy as possible.

Ask Her Doctor about Driving-specific Concerns

It may also be time to talk to her doctor about anything in particular that might create a hazard for your senior while driving. Mobility issues, arthritis, and even certain medications can all factor into whether your senior should still be driving or not. Your senior’s doctor can give you both an objective look into what could create problems for her down the road.

Keep up with Exercise and Other Self-care Tools

If your elderly family member isn’t already exercising, starting to exercise can help her to retain the strength and the range of motion that she needs to have in order to keep driving. Sleeping well and eating healthy foods can also contribute to keeping her behind the wheel. When these healthy habits are posed to your senior in this manner, she might find she’s more agreeable to sticking with these routines.

One option could be to hire elder care providers to drive for your senior when she’s not feeling up to it. As she becomes more comfortable with the fact that not driving isn’t going to clip her wings, she may allow that to happen more often.

If you or an aging loved one are considering elder care in Lakewood, NJ, contact the caring staff at Care Street Home Care’s Ocean/Monmouth Division. Call today 732-719-7011.