By Rachel Fields, OTC/L, CDRS — Occupational Therapist at Sheridan Memorial Hospital’s Wyoming Rehab.
A driving risk assessment can take the guesswork away
For many individuals, driving represents freedom. The skill allows you to explore, run errands, visit friends and live independently. For a variety of reasons, the ability to drive safely may change during the course of a lifetime. This could be due to a change in health (such as a stroke or neurologic condition), a medical procedure or disability or the onset of dementia.
Healthcare providers often see and care for patients who are not safe to drive and as such put themselves and others at risk. Having the conversation about safe driving with family members, or even with ourselves, often presents challenges though. The process of evaluating someone’s ability to drive has often felt subjective, and many individuals may not notice a decline in their own abilities. So how do you objectively evaluate a driver?
Having a driving risk assessment completed by a certified driver rehabilitation specialist can help eliminate the guesswork.
A driving risk assessment is an outpatient evaluation completed by an occupational therapist through facilities such as Wyoming Rehab. The evaluation looks at one’s vision, physical abilities and cognitive-perceptual abilities – all very important for driving. We take into account one’s medical history, insight and current driving habits. The evaluation typically takes about an hour to an hour and a half and it provides objective measures to help guide decisions regarding one’s risk when it comes to driving.
If someone is having difficulty with other activities of daily living, continued occupational therapy may be appropriate to improve on those movements and may help someone regain their ability to drive safely. But, more often, a medical diagnosis is permanent or progressive and may result in a permanent inability to drive. Occupational therapists and healthcare providers work closely with families and patients to optimize individuals’ independence while also focusing on safety for the individual, family and community.
Prior to tools like the driving risk assessment, physicians and other healthcare providers would rely on clinical assessments, which sometimes made a risk clear, but other times were harder to gauge in an office visit. Having a more dedicated evaluation by a specifically trained professional will ensure individuals are given the best chance of maintaining independence while also remaining safe.
If you have questions or concerns about your or a loved one’s ability to drive safely, ask your primary care or internal medicine provider for a referral to a rehabilitation service like Wyoming Rehab for a driving risk assessment and remove the guesswork from the conversation.
Learn more by listening below to what Primary Care Medical Director Dr. Kristopher Schamber and Wyoming Rehab Occupational Therapist Rachel Fields have to say on Public Pulse with host Floyd Whiting.
Driving assessments now available at SMH. Listen to what Kristopher Schamber, MD, FACP, and Rachel Fields, OTR/L, CDRS, have to say on Public Pulse hosted by Floyd Whiting.