Driving Rehab
Last week in our occupation-centered practice with older adults class, we had a guest lecturer on adaptive driving and community mobility. This lecture was very informative and I learned a lot from the experience. It is hard for us to think about it but driving is a very difficult and important skill that requires many different attributes.
When we talk about an adaptive driving program, the focus is on three main purposes: assessing the individual for safety and the potential to drive, evaluate individuals for appropriate adaptive equipment, and train individuals in the use of the equipment and compensatory techniques for driving. When assessing the individual there are two main components: the clinical evaluation and the behind-the-wheel assessment. The clinical evaluation is going to focus on a vision screening, visual perception, cognition, active range of motion, sensation of upper and lower extremities, grip, rules of the road, and insight and awareness. If all these skills prove to be adequate then the behind-the-wheel test will occur. Numerous factors are looked at during this test such as: do they judge time and distance safely, can they maintain safety, do they stay in their lane and are they scanning their environment and using mirrors.
Our guest lecturer mentioned that he performs adaptive driving programs for many different diagnoses. These diagnoses include stroke, TBI, SCI, amputations, Alzheimer's disease, muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, impairments in visual processing and intellectual disabilities. Now, the next question our guest lecturer addressed was what can we do to improve the capability of driving for clients with these diagnoses. I can think of numerous examples but for the sake of this blog post I will just go through two. First, I think of my uncle who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. When he was first diagnosed he was capable of driving and was safe on the road, but as we all know Alzheimer's is going to get worse as time goes on unfortunately. What we did for my uncle was relatively simple and inexpensive. We taped his home address to his steering wheel and listed step by step instructions for what to do if he got lost such as using his GPS, or simply calling a family member. This second example is an intervention our lecturer talked about that can be applied to a group of individuals who have suffered a bilateral upper extremity amputation. Many times when an amputation occurs individual's get a body powered prosthetic with a hook on the end. Thinking about this prosthetic, another relatively simple adaptation you can make is putting a clamp on the steering wheel where the individual can hook on to and steer in a simple easy manner. To help visualize I posted a picture at the bottom of this post. As you can see by these two examples there are hundreds of ways you can adapt driving to fit the needs of your client, you just need to be creative.
https://www.auto-mobility.co.za/driver-solutions/conversion-companies-list/
When we talk about an adaptive driving program, the focus is on three main purposes: assessing the individual for safety and the potential to drive, evaluate individuals for appropriate adaptive equipment, and train individuals in the use of the equipment and compensatory techniques for driving. When assessing the individual there are two main components: the clinical evaluation and the behind-the-wheel assessment. The clinical evaluation is going to focus on a vision screening, visual perception, cognition, active range of motion, sensation of upper and lower extremities, grip, rules of the road, and insight and awareness. If all these skills prove to be adequate then the behind-the-wheel test will occur. Numerous factors are looked at during this test such as: do they judge time and distance safely, can they maintain safety, do they stay in their lane and are they scanning their environment and using mirrors.
Our guest lecturer mentioned that he performs adaptive driving programs for many different diagnoses. These diagnoses include stroke, TBI, SCI, amputations, Alzheimer's disease, muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, impairments in visual processing and intellectual disabilities. Now, the next question our guest lecturer addressed was what can we do to improve the capability of driving for clients with these diagnoses. I can think of numerous examples but for the sake of this blog post I will just go through two. First, I think of my uncle who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. When he was first diagnosed he was capable of driving and was safe on the road, but as we all know Alzheimer's is going to get worse as time goes on unfortunately. What we did for my uncle was relatively simple and inexpensive. We taped his home address to his steering wheel and listed step by step instructions for what to do if he got lost such as using his GPS, or simply calling a family member. This second example is an intervention our lecturer talked about that can be applied to a group of individuals who have suffered a bilateral upper extremity amputation. Many times when an amputation occurs individual's get a body powered prosthetic with a hook on the end. Thinking about this prosthetic, another relatively simple adaptation you can make is putting a clamp on the steering wheel where the individual can hook on to and steer in a simple easy manner. To help visualize I posted a picture at the bottom of this post. As you can see by these two examples there are hundreds of ways you can adapt driving to fit the needs of your client, you just need to be creative.
https://www.auto-mobility.co.za/driver-solutions/conversion-companies-list/
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