Talk with your Elder about Convenience of Mass Transit - Many mass transit authorities have special services and special fares for elderly and disabled. Check with your local transit authority. And talk with your elder about how nice it is to be able to enjoy scenery while someone else does driving.

Give Your Elder a Refresher Course - Not only will a refresher course improve road awareness, it may help your elder earn a discount on his car insurance. Courses and informative pamphlets are available from AARP, AAA, and AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. You'll find links to these sites at end of this article.

Report unsafe driving to your local Department of Public Safety. They may have additional help to offer you.

"Break" Car - My teenagers unplugged a few vital wires when my father, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease, refused to relinquish keys. We knew his cognitive ability was far too impaired for him to recognize problem, and he was always comforted when we said we'd have car repaired "soon."

Remove Keys - Distract your elder from finding "lost" keys by offering an immediate alternative way to go somewhere. While this may be most unpleasant way to stop your elder from driving, remember that you are not only protecting him but all rest of us as well.

And what happened to my aunt? She got a ticket from a wonderful traffic officer whom we all blessed on a daily basis! Fearing loss of her auto insurance, she voluntarily gave up driving.

Web Resources

Driving Safely While Aging Gracefully is a free booklet you can read online.

AARP offers a refresher course for elderly drivers as well as a number of other helpful resources. See their site at http://www.aarp.org/55alive/.

AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety has a terrific new site, seniordrivers.org, that you shouldn't miss if you're a senior driver or have a senior driver in your family. Exercises, examples of perceptual loss due to aging, emergency tips, and much, much more - all free. Please don't miss it!

For more in depth information on elderly drivers, see OLR research report

The Experimental Pharmacology Department of American Cyanamid Company and Merck Index reports that Ritalin is no less toxic or safer than amphetamine and methamphetamine. They continue, by stating that upon administration of these drugs, motor activity decreases. Often time's tremors and convulsions occur. Further studies on amphetamine derivatives show that short-term clinical doses produce brain cell death. Long-lasting and sometimes permanent changes in biochemistry of brain are also a result.

These drugs are a permanent "time out" for children who are inclined to think for themselves and are consequently mislabeled as ADHD because they don't follow herd. Once family becomes priority rather than "career", we will get to know our children better and establish relationships built on respect. Guaranteed, this makes for a better society where children are stimulated by human interaction rather than synthetic drugs.

Ever heard of "divide and conquer"? Multi-national pharmaceutical cartels are doing a good job of this. Their success lies in our ignorance regarding synthetic drugs and their effects on our lives and society on a whole. Parents and children alike MUST begin to ASK QUESTIONS! Unfortunately, being "politically correct" has become more important than our well-being.

"...But they are not madmen, and their aim is not anarchy but social stability. It is in order to achieve stability that they carry out, by scientific means, ultimate, personal, really revolutionary revolution."

-Aldous Huxley Author Brave New World