DriverTalk Campaign
Helping families keep their loved ones safe on the road
DriveTalk supports families who are concerned about a loved one’s driving and want clear, practical, compassionate guidance. Our approach focuses on safety, dignity, and confidence while helping people make informed decisions about driving. We also support the development of skilled, informed professionals who can provide high-quality assistance in the community.
The aims of this campaign are as follows:
-
Support for families who want help starting conversations about driving safety and planning the next steps.
-
Training for approved driving instructors so they can provide appropriate assistance to older drivers and people whose health or cognition may affect driving.
-
Practical skill assessments carried out in the driver’s own vehicle, helping to create a more familiar, comfortable, and realistic driving experience.
-
Guidance that promotes safe decision-making while respecting independence and individual needs.
Why It Matters
Families are often the first to notice changes in a loved one’s driving. Accessible, practical assessments and well-trained instructors can make it easier to identify concerns early, reduce risk, and support safe mobility decisions. Using the driver’s own vehicle can also help make assessments more relevant to real everyday driving conditions.
DriveTalk: supporting safer driving, informed choices, and peace of mind for families.
Family Members
Helping those who are concerned for the safety of an older driver.
Family members are often the first to notice changes in a loved one’s driving ability.
These changes may develop gradually with age or arise more quickly as a result of a cognitive health condition.
At present, many families have limited access to clear, practical support and guidance.
That needs to change.
Medical Professionals
Helping Clinicians make a fitness to drive decision based on actual driving evidence.
For many doctors, making fitness-to-drive decisions can be especially challenging when cognitive impairment is involved.
Limited insight into a patient’s driving ability can make accurate clinical judgement difficult.
This approach must evolve.
Helping drivers to check their own safety using a driving professional who understands how cognitive impairment can affect driving.
Drivers
Following a diagnosis of a cognitive condition such as dementia, access to driving assessment in most parts of the UK is largely limited to Driving Mobility.
This reflects the limited number of driving instructors trained to recognise how dementia may affect driving, which can lead to uncertainty or false reassurance.
Driving Mobility typically offers a formal driving assessment, but for many people this can feel overwhelming due to the unfamiliar vehicle, unfamiliar roads, and pre-assessment discussions and tests.
As a result, it is extremely difficult for drivers living with dementia to access assessment from a suitably qualified professional in their own vehicle.
This must change.
DVLA
Helping DVLA to make a judgement on fitness to continue holding a driving licence.
When drivers notify the DVLA about dementia, they are asked to send a copy of a driving asessment if one has been carried out within the last 12 months.
Without trained and experienced driving instructors, it is almost impossible to arrange a suitable assessment.
This is one of the reasons that DriveTalk Consultancy now offers on-line training to driving instructors which gives them a basic understanding of how cognitive impairment affects driving.