Anyone having trouble keeping their dementia patient in the car when traveling?

After experiencing the same harrowing event, on the freeway... I now tape over the door handle very securely with STRONG packing tape. Mom can't figure out where the door hand went! Even though it may leave the door a little sticky, it is certainly worth the effort.

Thanks everyone for your support and suggestions. I finally took her out last night for a drive to look at the Christmas lights, she was content in the back seat with her seatbelt on. Of course I had fixed her some coco in a snippy cup to keep her hands busy!
Mom is a runner and loves to wander at night so I have been using motion detectors that alert me with a flashing light next to my bed, it is great! I have a wemo device that lets me lock the garage door from my phone along with any other security device. Thought I would share. Thanks again everyone it is so nice to know that there are other caregivers out there to turn to!

My husband tried to open the car door while we were driving on the Interstate back home from a rehab session. He kept pulling on the handle, but I had locked the car from the inside - so all car doors were locked. The only way for him to open his door would have been to push the lock itself open - which he couldn't do. I considered putting him in the backseat, but I knew I'd be constantly checking on him while driving. Besides our airbags are only in the front and I could reach over and take his hand when he tried to fumble with the seat belt lock. I also gave him something to hold and watch for me (anything from my purse would do). It worked. Hope that helps - because this is really scary and I know what you are going through. One more thing in this roller coaster ride dealing with dementia.

You need someone to go with you and assist when you take mom out in the car. I never take my dad alone anymore.

I forgot one important thing about the child safety door lock feature, the handle on the inside of the car can't open the door, and both doors would have to have them flipped in the correct direction to disengage the opening handle.

Hello Ronnie, I wish I could help, but we never really solved this problem with my mother. Yes, she did the same thing, and luckily I had the controlling lock on my driver's door that first few times. So I could stop her from opening the doors and windows when I took her to the doctor. That worked for a short time; but soon she started playing with the seat belt latch too, and I couldn't stop her from doing that. I tried putting her in the back seat, but that caused her to be agitated. I'm ashamed to say, a few times, I just let her ride without the seat belt. But that didn't work either, no sooner did she have the seat belt off, she'd start to work on the door controls, and being that those wouldn't work she started in on the radio and then the gear shift and other dash controls. That was a bad scene, as I had to pull off the road, and I was the agitated one then, not knowing how to get us home with her acting like that. The last time we took her someplace in the car ( with my husband driving and me in the back seat to stop her touching things, she started pulling on the back of my husbands seat belt and when I tried to stop that, she was reaching over the seat and pulling on his arm, (It's amazing how strong these old people can be when you try to stop them from doing something.). We never took her in the car again because as it happened, soon after that she had a fall at home. Ended up in the hospital and then in the nursing home; she was never truly ambulatory again. We had to use the ambulance-like transfer services after that. ....I do hope you get more help from the others. Just know that we do understand what you're going through.

I hate restraints, but for her safety and for your peace of mind while driving I would run a belt of some sort around her and fasten it behind the seat so that she cannot unhook it. I have seen this done in healthcare facilities, strapping a patient to a chair. It would be much like a seat belt and she possibly wouldn't recognize the difference. Or if you don't have safety locks in the front, maybe you could secure the door from the outside. Surely they have something on the market to do this.....I doubt that you are the only one experiencing this dilema!

Ever since the harrowing trip from rehab to assisted living dementia unit this summer (she's now ih nh), when she she tried to grab the steering wheel from my husband, we've had mom transported by ambulette to Dr's appts and such. Just not worth the danger.

She was much calmer & a happier passenger in the back seat & the only time the safety lock was humorous was one night I gave a grocery store cashier a ride home because the weather was horrible out & he didn't have a car. He had checked me out every evening for I don't know how many years but I didn't want him walking home at 1am in that weather & I was just getting my food then at closing since I had been at mom's until then. I was finally eating my dinner at 1-2 am. so I said you know my pass. seat is a mess, which with mom living nearby
(dad was her caregiver at the time) you would always have a mess of paperwork, pullups, whatever. So hop in the back. Well he had never trusted this stranger with a ride anywhere. And I get him home & he can't exit. It set us up for a little moment of his panic as a young man & he said "oh that's right I remember your stories of your "Ma" I think he even remembered the story at the checkout about her thinking we were parked at every red light.

Put a strap, long fabric scarf or some similar thing you feel comfortable with and is easiest for you, around her just under her chest and tie or buckle it in the back of her seat. Make it snug but not too tight. She won't be able to undo it herself. She will have to wait for you to get out of the car and come around to undo it for her. Worked like a charm for my mom and gave me piece of mind. I kept a pocket knife right under my seat I could reach just in case I ever had any emergency and had to cut it off fast.