"You're no longer safe to drive ..."

Gorfinkel narrates her personal experiences treating a patient with a memory loss. "Aging is a battlefield," a stalwart 80-plus patient asserts as he leaves her general practice clinic. He is barely gone when a mother and daughter enter the room. She finish her progress note on the previou...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Canadian Medical Association journal (CMAJ) 2019-10, Vol.191 (40), p.E1107-E1108
Main Author: Gorfinkel, Iris
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Actors
Anger
Dementia
Drivers' licenses
Families & family life
Family medicine
Family physicians
General practitioners
Health aspects
Humanities
Licensing, certification and accreditation
Memory
Motor vehicle driving
Patients
Physicians
Primary care
Psychiatric patients
Short term
Traffic safety
Vehicles
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Summary:Gorfinkel narrates her personal experiences treating a patient with a memory loss. "Aging is a battlefield," a stalwart 80-plus patient asserts as he leaves her general practice clinic. He is barely gone when a mother and daughter enter the room. She finish her progress note on the previous patient and look up to see another familiar face, a face that fills her with foreboding. She's been dreading this visit. Linda (not her real name) has come to review her neurologist's report about whether she can safely drive. Up until a year ago, Linda worked as an actor whose livelihood had depended on remembering her lines. She seems to have aged substantially from their last visit and looks all of her 78 years, perhaps more. They talk about the implications of her memory loss and how it could affect her driving.
ISSN:0820-3946
1488-2329
DOI:10.1503/cmaj.190705