Driving and OT

This week, we had the privilege of learning about driving and community mobility and OT. This might make you think back to when you were 16 and someone had to get in the car with you to tell you whether you were allowed to drive or not. Honestly, part of it is the same. Except now instead of failing the test because I couldn’t parallel park, I am in a position to obtain a specialty certification and becoming the person who recommends someone to not be allowed to drive.

One main point that was really stressed to us was how important it is to build rapport with a client before and during any type of session. This applies to every setting, with or without a certification specialty. It is especially important when assessing a person’s ability to drive because a lot of the time, you have to be the one to tell an individual that the state is probably going to be taking away their ability to drive. I think this is so vital for every setting because no matter where you are, you will have to deliver bad news about permanent or temporary deficits eventually.

Another key point was just how many different diagnoses can affect an individual’s ability to drive. If you live in your own little bubble, you just assume that everyone can drive because it is so natural and understood for drivers. However, people with a stroke, a traumatic brain injury, a spinal cord injury, an amputation, Alzheimer’s disease, muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, an intellectual disability, or an impairment in visual processing can all affect an individual’s ability to drive. I think it is so easy to underscore how many people this affects because not only does it mean that that entire population either needs an adaptation for driving or cannot drive, but it also affects those individual’s caregivers or family members. If they cannot drive themselves, they need someone to take them to appointments which is where the family has to step in. What really intrigued me was when we learned that on average, people outlive their ability to drive by 6-8 years. This means that most people need someone to drive them anywhere they need to go for 6-8 years.

One other (there were several) key take away for me, someone becoming an entry level OT in less than a year, was how many low-cost options there are to help someone improve their ability to drive. Whether that is with reference points on the car or road, enlarged mirrors or bling spot mirrors, speedometer, arrow, or numbers markings, or glare reduction using a towel, there can be simple ways to either improve an individual’s safety while driving, or to allow someone with a motor impairment the ability to continue to drive.

One OT intervention to address these needs could be scanning to the left with a support group for those who just had a stroke and now have left neglect. This is something that needs constant cueing to remember at first, which obviously affects an individual’s ability to drive safely. Without scanning to the left, an individual may merge into oncoming traffic and not even realize it until it is too late. Another OT intervention to do with an individual is collaborating with the client to figure out where their greatest needs are while driving and then figuring out an adaptation for it. Whether that is a higher seat, a bigger mirror, or even just a visual cue to keep the car straight on the road.