© Mathieu Thomasset
On April 3, the Ministries of Health and the Interior published an order in the Official Journal, in which stage 3 Alzheimer’s disease, which involves “mild cognitive decline”, is now declared incompatible with driving.
In the village of Domme, in the Dordogne, Valérie never leaves her car. Every day, the 50-year-old criss-crosses this old medieval bastide, in order to run errands or visit her closest friends, located ten kilometers from her home. “Without my vehicle, it would be impossible to cover even short distances, because I have knee problems”, testifies this mother of three children. Reaching Alzheimer’s disease at stage 3 – a “mild cognitive decline” according to the Reisberg scale, a classification of seven degrees used by certain doctors to describe its evolution – Valérie will however have to give it up. On April 3, the Ministries of Health and Interior issued an order to the Official newspaper, in which his pathology is now declared incompatible with driving. “When I saw this announcement on a Facebook group dedicated to people affected by Alzheimer’s, it was a shock. I told myself that my life was going to change radically, because no one around me will be able to accompany me in the car. she continues, her voice hazy.
“My life will change radically, because no one around me will be able to accompany me in the car.”
Valerie, sick
To justify this measure, the Road Safety Delegation (DSR), the body responsible for the project, highlights its aspect “preventive”. “We know that people with Alzheimer’s can cause accidents, driving in the wrong direction, for example. We therefore want to anticipate these risks as much as possible,” we specify to the DSR, while admitting that no data exists on the subject. Since 2005, the list of incompatible medical conditions for obtaining or maintaining a driving license has prohibited driving for people with dementia – a qualifier used from stage 4 of the Reisberg scale. “With the new decree, we have simply lowered the threshold by one notch”, adds the DSR, for whom this text is not “a major change” but one “logical evolution”, given the greater knowledge of the disease.
For their part, the associations are in misunderstanding. “Not only did the Ministry of the Interior not contact us, but we were carrying out a study alongside them on the mobility of these people, the conclusions of which were to appear in a few months!” relates Benoît Durand, managing director of France Alzheimer, a structure recognized as being of public utility. “During the early stages of the disease, some people retain all the reflexes needed to drive. It would therefore have been necessary to reason on a case-by-case basis, for example by carrying out tests each year to determine whether or not the patient is still fit to take his vehicle. he completes.
“Apart from stigmatizing people who will no longer want to be tested and bring them even more difficulties, I therefore do not see what this decree brings.”
Hélène Jacquemont, President of the Médéric Alzheimer Foundation
“Alzheimer’s is not a linear disease, and it can be difficult for a doctor to model its progress. Apart from stigmatizing people who will no longer want to be tested and bring them even more difficulties, I therefore do not see what this decree brings, ” abounds Hélène Jacquemont, president of the Médéric Alzheimer Foundation, also unsolicited by the government. For her, the challenge of mobility lies less in the ban than in supporting the 1.2 million French people diagnosed, as well as their relatives. “We should think regarding alternative methods of travel, supported by the State. Because, when you live in the countryside or when you are in a precarious situation, you cannot necessarily take a taxi or be accompanied”, she expands.
Patricia will not say otherwise. Resident of a small village in Aveyron, the soon to be septuagenarian, diagnosed a year ago, has no choice but to take her vehicle to attend a support group alongside other patients. “The trip takes me five minutes, and it’s the only one I’ve done since I found out I had Alzheimer’s,” swears the retiree. This workshop is for her, widowed and isolated, the last link with others. “I made a lot of friends there. So if my license was taken away from me, I would lose everything. No longer driving would sign my social death.
