Kognitive Beurteilung und Überwachung der Fahrkompetenz : Empfehlungen für die Schweiz

This project aimed to investigate current practices, challenges, and opportunities re lated to fitness-to-drive evaluations for older adults and individuals with cognitive im pairments in Switzerland. As the Swiss population ages, ensuring safe, fair, and evi dence-informed decisions regarding fitness to drive is crucial for maintaining both road safety and personal autonomy. The project brings together insights from profes sionals across disciplines, focus groups, and a national survey to inform coherent pol icy development and practice guidelines. Driving is a complex task that relies on multiple cognitive functions, including atten tion, executive function, processing speed, and visual-motor coordination. Cognitive impairments, whether due to neurodegenerative conditions, acquired brain injury, or normal ageing, can compromise driving safety. However, cognitive tests alone are poor predictors of actual driving performance in the real world. There is limited consensus on how to integrate cognitive, behavioural, and functional assessments into decisions about fitness-to-drive. Therefore, decisions must integrate functional assessments, clinical judgement, and on-road evaluations in a multi-disciplinary approach. The lack of clear lines of communication between the professionals involved, the ab sence of well-defined roles and responsibilities for each person, and the lack of com pensation programmes (to keep people on the road or help them stop driving) make the issue of driving ability for people with cognitive disorders disparate and unfair. In addition, there are few large-scale, high-quality studies to guide interventions or com pensation practices. There is a lack of harmonisation at the national level, limited ac cess to qualified professionals and insufficient communication between professions. Regional disparities further complicate access to a fair assessment process.