This
article appeared in Aging Today, September/October 1997, copyright American
Society on Aging, 1997. It appeared in the newspaper's Research Today section,
aupported by a grant from the AARP Andrus
Foundation.
GM Study Shows Effectiveness of Oregon Group
General Motors might seem like an unlikely chronicler of a grassroots organization for older drivers. Yet from 1990 to 1995, GM scientists observed and interviewed 216 volunteers, family members and clients involved with Driving Decisions for Seniors (DDS), an elder-run service in Eugene, Ore.
The result is the new report, Driving Decisions for Seniors: A Practical Model of Elders Assisting One Another to Manage Their Own Mobility Choices.
FROM HOT RODS TO SAFETY
Since retired hot-rod enthusiast and social worker Ethel Villeneuve founded DDS in 1987, the organization has consulted with more than 2,000 elders in the greater Eugene area. Many have reduced or quit driving and have made the switch to alternative transportation as a result of these consultations.
Villeneuve commented, "Everyone knows that mobility loss can build to major family crises. But families don't talk until things are really out of control. So, like a suicide hotline, we make ourselves available when the crisis hits, with tools to assist people in making productive uninflamed choices."
The DDS support group meets twice a month at a local senior center to talk about issues related to driving and to try to find solutions to mobility and independence dilemmas. There is also a DDS phone number elders and family members can call to talk about their driving problems, ask transportation-related questions and receive support and encouragement. Drawing on Villeneuve's years of experience with a crisis-intervention program called The Six Weeks, the DDS support group and hotline acknowledge the central role that psychological issues play for older drivers.
Observing that DDS is the nation's only service assisting elders with automotive concerns founded and run by older people themselves, former GM senior research scientist, Thomas Heckmann, who co-authored the report, noted to Aging Today that the group is in an unusual position "to explore the meaning of mobility loss to elders and the role that elders themselves might play in assisting high-risk older drivers to reduce risk and adapt to alternative transportation."
Heckmann and Lyndon F. Duke of GM's Adversity Research Department wrote that study to serve as a handbook for practitioners interested in replicating the organization's efforts. The report provides details on the four major principles guiding DDS: information, crisis intervention, language modification and autonomous choice.
HIERARCHY OF MISERIES
As part of the report, GM developed "A Hierarchy of Elder Mobility Miseries" based on interviews with elders involved with DDS. Of the nine troublesome aspects of driving listed, says the report, "The most frequently and intensely expressed misery was equation of driving privilege loss with negation of personal effectiveness."
One way in which DDS deals with such feelings is through language replacement, techniques borrowed from the Oregon social services community. DDS volunteers complete at least 16 hours of training in these techniques. Elders are led to gradually replace language they use describing their issues as dangerous and exceptional, such as, "If I stop driving, it will kill me," with language describing them as uncomfortable but not atypical, for example, "If other average people can work these things out, so can I."
Some other key "miseries" related to elder mobility limitations were the perceived shift of the older person's social participation from being a "giver" to being a "taker" of assistance, the loss of driving privilege and resultant vulnerability to authorities who would interfere with personal liberty, and a redefinition of the older individual's relationship to his or her family.
People coming to DDS for help are both elders who have issues about driving and family members and caregivers concerned about elders' automotive risks.
REMEDIES
Out of a sample of 200 elders, GM found that 126 adopted a procedural remedy from DDS, such as learning information and the skills necessary to pass the licensing examination, while 22 gave up driving altogether.
Part of the success of DDS relates to the pleasant climate, low rates of violent crime and excellent public transportation encountered in Eugene's Lane County. In areas where safe and convenient transportation alternatives are not available, a similar organization might have trouble convincing residents to give up or cut down on driving, Heckmann said.
The report says that to replicate DDS, organizers must have great volunteers, community sanction of elder activism, information on services and procedures, crisis intervention training, backup from crisis intervention professionals and a sense that the organization is more than just a support group.
For a free copy of the 102-page report contact GM's Research and
Development Center, 30500 Mound Rd., Box 9055, Warren, MI 48090-9055.