Gary Barg, Editor-in-Chief
Now that it seems like we are beginning to see the end of the darkness that was the Covid-19 pandemic, things are not so slowly returning to some sense of normalcy (whatever that was). Airports, stores and restaurants are once again packed with people. Roadways are once again, in many places, bumper to bumper. Doctor’s appointments are being conducted non-virtually. There is much good to this, as long as we remain safe and smart.
Truthfully, as a caregiver, Covid-19 did offer a useful answer to some of the most challenging questions posed by our loved ones, first and foremost, the driving issue. “Sorry mom, you are not able to drive due to Covid-19” rings hollow when she sees the roadways packed on her favorite television nightly news program.
The good news is that the tried and true methods to battling the driving question still remain in effect. Everything to the anonymous call to the DMV, to involving the doctor, to the strangely disappearing distributor cap.
As would be expected, the in-person Fearless Caregiver Conferences went on a long hiatus after February 2020. We have been hosting a series of highly interactive virtual events that have (thankfully) had the same energetic and insightful questions, advice and responses as we have always seen at the in-person events.
We do hope to be able to return to in-person or at least hybrid events shortly and expect that once again the driving question becomes the conference show-stopper. Whenever a caregiver would raise his or her hand to ask about their loved ones driving at the previous 287 in-person events, all other conversation stopped until we thoroughly dealt with the issue. Which was a good thing.
In fact, I’d like to once again share the video taken at the 2010 Nashville Fearless Caregiver conference when a young man raised his hand and asked how he could get his mother to stop driving. As you will see many of the best responses came from his fellow caregivers in the room, as well as from the expert panels.
Just as we all need to freshen up on our driving skills as we return to the highways and byways, we need to re-start the engine of successfully responding to our loved ones interest in getting behind the wheel again. Dealing with the driving question from our loved ones reminds us as caregivers that not all perilous journeys occur on the road, yet as always, it is helpful to have a roadmap of the trip ahead.