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April 12th, 2013 
WAKING from a brief snooze during a routine trip to Marysville with her husband Geoff at the wheel, Melbourne woman Anne Fairhall could tell something was amiss.
For no apparent reason, he was putting along the southern Victorian highway they were travelling on at 20km/h.
When she asked him why, he sped up and didn’t answer.
Over the next few years, though, there were more red flags.
“We’d get to a roundabout which was very familiar but we’d keep going around because he couldn’t decide which outlet we had to go down,” she said.
Eventually, Mr Fairhall was diagnosed with dementia.
Before the illness took hold, Mr Fairhall had been a regular Renaissance man – he’d had a successful career as a university lecturer, spoke several languages and played the pipe organ.
But as his cognitive skills deteriorated, Ms Fairhall knew he had to stop driving.
Speaking at the launch of a new guide about dementia and driving in Melbourne on Friday, Ms Fairhall said the decision was a difficult one.
Developed by the RACV with Alzheimer’s Australia Victoria, the guide suggests individuals with dementia in its developing stages plan ahead by moving closer to public transport, organising grocery home deliveries and using taxi services.
RACV manager of road user behaviour Melinda Congiu said the crash risk for drivers with dementia is up to eight times higher than other motorists.
She said the decision to give up driving can be fraught with tension, with individuals often reluctant to give up the freedom associated with driving.
For Ms Fairhall, the guide is an important resource for carers, often seen as “evil” by their loved one for trying to take their freedom away.
“It’s a very grief-producing experience because they still feel they can still do everything they did before,” she said.
“It’s a tough road.”
There are currently 74,500 Victorians living with dementia.
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