The Elder Advocates Of Alberta Society have asked the RCMP to investigate complaints the organization has received from a number of senior citizens across Alberta regarding the Simard MD and DriveAble.
Ruth Maria Adria, chairperson of the society, said the group existed informally for a number of years before they finally decided to incorporate as a non-profit organization in 1992. Their mandate is to advocate for seniors and raise awareness in both the public and government about issues that are important for seniors.
“We are a very grass routes type of organization,” she said. “We don’t stay in an office writing papers about what we believe. We are the boots on the ground and are in the nursing homes and everywhere else fighting for seniors in every area.”
Over the last number of years, one of the most contentious issues for seniors and therefore the society has been the topic of the Simard MD and DriveAble tests.
Under Alberta law, when seniors reach age 75 they must undergo an assessment by a physician in order to continue driving.
If a doctor has concerns, he can refer a senior to take a cognitive drivers assessment test.
One of the ways he might do this is by administering the Simard MD. The test, which was developed by Dr. Bonnie Dobbs and Dr. Don Schopflocher, of the Universiy of Alberta’s Medically At-Risk Driver Centre in an effort to come up with an objective test to help medical professionals determine if a person still has the mental ability to be safe behind the wheel.
The test, which is administered free of charge, takes about 20 minutes to complete and involves the doctor asking the driver a series of questions such as identifying objects found in a grocery store or asking you to repeat letters or numbers in sequence.
Based on the results of the test the doctor may recommend further cognitive testing such as the DriveAble test. This test asks you to do six tasks on a touch screen that measure driving skill. For example, you would be asked to guide a box through a moving broken line that simulates the same skill necessary to judge gaps in traffic. The test takes 30 to 60 minutes to complete and is done at a DriveABLE centre.
Both the Simard MD and the DriveAble tests are not mandatory and seniors can opt for a standard road test to prove their driving competency.
“The problem is that most seniors don’t know it is optional. And here they are being asked to take a test, which has a very high failure rate, and one of them is conducted by a private business that charge $250 and where is that money all going?” Adria asked, adding the society has been told the individual DriveAble Assessment Corporation only gets a small portion.
She understands out of the DriveAble fee, the individual franchises take their cut, but Adria said the society would like a better account of where this fee goes and they have asked the RCMP to investigate.
However, she said what the society is most concerned about is the affect it is having on seniors.
“We feel these tests are totally unfair and are difficult if not impossible for the majority of drivers, regardless of who they are and because they are seniors and just want to get their licenses renewed they won’t complain,” she said, adding in Barrhead there have been people that have gone public. Most notably Joe Smith (see the Oct. 21, 2014 issue of the Barrhead Leader.) Smith who was asked to take both the Simard MD and DriveAble tests, failed them both, successfully got his license back after passing the standard road test.
“It is our goal and what we have been working towards for a number of years now is to get rid of this whole thing. It will be a cat fight but in the end I know we will get there,” Adria said.
