Elderly People Who Go Missing

They are not only a danger to themselves but others as well. I don't know that they could put such a law in place, because of other people driving that have certain conditions, like epilepsy.

I would think that generally speaking the ones who still have their license are in their first stages of Alzheimers. Plus, legally, as long as they can pass the test in HOW to drive they cannot pull their license unless they seem to be a threat to others. Usually it's the family who asks for the license to be revoked. My great uncle had Alzheimers and in the beginning stages still drove. They thought he was just "forgetful" for a while until it happened over and over that he would park his car and forget where it was, often walking for miles.

You will understand the situation once you are in it. I think I understand why people with alzheimers refuse to stop driving. It's about dignity and the issue of survival for oneself. We can't totally depend on others to move on. As long as we can be independent, we should do things by ourselves. Most of the time people who takes care of alzheimers sufferers only said to ban them from driving because they do not want to get into trouble. But i think if we start to understand how they feel inside, we will let them drive. What we have to do is equip them with an address book and a reminder so that whenever they forget their way home, they will be able to find it through the reminder. Life is great, and we should value each and every moment of it with love and care.

I agree with you, we all need to ban together to keep this group of people safe. I too think that physicians should have to send the names of those diagnosed with Alzheimer's to a central data base with the highway patrol and their license should be taken. Families should hide car keys. It seems cruel, but by doing this we could perhaps save their life and the life of others whom they are liable to get into an accident with! Our government should fund more day centers for these folks so that they would have a place to go and be with others and kept safe rather than spending so much on foreign need. I best stop here, or I'll get on my soapbox and still be here at midnight ranting about government spending that is not prioritized the way I would like for it to be!

Makes no sense to me either. I think people should have to re-take the driving test at a certain age. There is no way some people should be driving. And if you have Alzeheimers then you should not be able to drive either. We have to think of the safety of the other drivers and of the elderly people themselves. Of course, if we took better care of our elders, then perhaps they wouldn't feel it necessary to drive.

In California a Doctor or relative can contact the Dept. of Motor Vehicles and have their license suspended.

This is really quite hard to do , wgen my dad was first showing signs of Alzheimers , long before he was diagnosed , He stopped at a road end and forgot for a moment how to start the car , I tried to tell him he would have to give up his licence , I was worried for him and MUm bur I was worried too he could cause an accident and kill someone else , I contacted our doctor made an appointment with him for my Dad , the Doctor explained ant told him to go home and hang up his car keys , it was really sad as i had to do all the paperwork , but it had to be done , for his sake and for others , he loves going with me now though xxx

Gee, thats so sad...I really do not understand why they are still driving also...Why didnt their family help them, if they knew what their situation was..

It is very sad how Alzheimer's Disease can devastate a person's mentation. I agree that they shouldn't be allowed to drive. But then again, would that really stop them from going out of the house? They can still walk or take a bus. So it's really up to the family or facility staff to make sure that these poor elderly are well taken care of and protected from harm. It is very difficult because Alzheimer's devastates relationships with other people as well, but it must be done. It's really sad. I wish there could be a medical treatment for this disease.

Hi there. Why elderly go missing, the elderly simply go walk abouts usually when they're in resthomes, or hospitals, old peoples hospital, most of them will have a degree of Alzheimers Disease... I saw alot of this happening, as a pt time caregiver local resthome years ago...

i definately believe there should be a certain age either they get cut off from driving or they have to retake the driving test.especially if they have illnesses like parkensons etc.because not only are they risking their life,they are risking everyone on the roads life.