Ontario senior drivers must learn how to protect their drivers licenses. Many have reported that when they visited their Doctor’s office or were admitted to hospital for something entirely unrelated to mental health, they were administered some form of mental, cognitive or dementia test without their knowledge, without full disclosure by the health professional as to the purpose of the tests and therefore without having given informed consent as required by the Health Care Consent Act of Ontario, 1996.
Worse still, their drivers licenses were revoked by the Ontario Ministry of Transportation after unknowingly being given such a test. In many cases, it costs the senior thousands of dollars before they could get their drivers license back.
8,000 Alberta seniors have been reported to have lost their drivers license to this discriminatory and discredited testing, causing much mental, emotional and financial hardship.
Tricking of Senior Drivers by Some Doctors!
In one instance, the Senior reported actually being tricked into taking the test when his doctor said “ We are conducting some clinical experiments and need a few people to take part – would you take part?”. The senior driver, who believed he was just helping his Doctor with a clinical study, had his license revoked by the MOT because he apparently failed some sort of ‘memory’ test!
That senior stated that at the top of one of the papers used by the Doctor it read, “Montreal”, which could mean they used an equally faulty dementia test called, ” The Montreal Cognitive Assessment”. Two parts of that faulty test is now being used in the Ontario Seniors Test, “The Drawing of the Clock,” and “The finding of the letter “H” amongst the numbers”.
Under the Ontario Health Care Consent Act, 1996, all patients have the right to be FULLY informed of ANY treatment OR test to be administered by any and all health care providers before they give their consent. The health care provider MUST fully disclose what they are planning to do and wait for you to consent. They must have your informed consent BEFORE administering anything to you and you have the right to refuse such treatment.
HOW TO REFUSE CONSENT FOR ALL MEMORY, COGNITIVE AND DEMENTIA TESTING of Senior Drivers
It is strongly recommended that senior drivers who go to see their doctors or who are admitted to hospital for any medical checkup or treatment, present a signed and dated written letter to the health care provider that states clearly the following:
By way of this letter, in keeping with my rights under the Health Care Consent Act of Ontario, 1996, I am formally Refusing Consent to mental, memory, cognitive or dementia testing during my treatment and visit with you, and particularly if it in any way is connected, directly or indirectly, to driver licensing or driver testing. This refusal to consent to any mental, memory, cognitive or dementia testing by you, your organization, your staff or contractors is effective immediately until further written notice.
_______________________________ Date: _________________
Signed
This procedure should be followed each time you visit a health care Practitioner because they could ‘lose’ or ‘forget’ that your refusal is in place.
Should your health care provider violate your Refusal of Consent, he or she will be acting unlawfully and can be held liable for damages because this Act was put in place specifically to prevent abuse of patients. Advise us immediately of any such breach by your health care provider by contacting us at admin@stopelderdriverabuse.ca .
In addition, should you be ordered to take a medical test, a memory test or any other test that is not a test that is given to all other drivers of all ages, whether by the Ministry of Transportation, the testing company DriveABLE or any other assessment centre, you can exercise your right to refuse and instead immediately get in touch with us at admin@stopelderdriverabuse.ca .
You may also choose to offer to take the driving test from any testing company other than DriveABLE, however the point in all this is that any special medical, memory, or special driver testing of seniors is discrimination and must be stopped.
It has been reported that DriveABLE has shown hostility toward Seniors during their testing and that these tests, despite their various names, have a direct link to the Simard dementia test, through Bonnie Dobbs, the wife and part owner of DriveABLE.
Research has shown that Bonnie Dobbs sits on the Ontario Ministry of Transportation Committees that determine what punitive tests should be applied to seniors. This is as gross a conflict of interest as anyone can imagine.
In fact, Bonnie Dobbs has expressed that by age 65 years, most people are becoming demented and by 70 are the most dangerous people on the road. She has ignored all the research contradicting her statements, but it seems the MOT is choosing opinion and profiteering over science and fact …and Constitutional rights.
Give this advice maximum circulation by sending it to all of your contacts, with the request that they do the same. If all senior drivers do this, it will reduce their chances of losing their licenses unfairly and will send a message to doctors that they are expected to abide by the law.
We have heard that senior drivers in Alberta and BC are ‘doctor shopping’ to ensure they find a doctor who is as disgusted and repulsed by this testing as senior drivers are. Bonnie Dobbs has been reported to be trying to find a way to force the medical community to administer her ‘memory’ tests even though her ‘testing’ has been entirely discredited by top, ethical, researchers and doctors.
Yours Sincerely,
Ed. Rockburne,RCMP,Retired, email:erockburne@cogeco.ca, www.stopelderdriverabuse.ca, April 13,2015.
PLEASE BE SURE to contribute to the legal defense fund at www.StopElderDriverAbuse.ca what you can share and let us know of anyone who has been targeted by this discrimination and fraudulent scheme in the last 2 years who might be interested in being a test case in Small Claims court where we have been advised the best remedy in this situation would be found.
Please enjoy the numerous other blog posts at our website Stop Elder Driver Abuse