Driving And Mobility

The instructors will provide an overview of community mobility, including the discussion of various forms of transportation. Students will learn how community mobility can be applied to the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework contexts, performance patterns, and performance skills. Additionally, students will review community mobility concerns by life stage and disability or medical condition. This presentation highlights the Occupational Therapist role as a generalist and specialist in regard to community mobility, including a review of interventions and available resources.

In this course, the author provides an overview of the current crash statistics in the USA, an introduction to autonomous vehicles (AV), including the levels of AV, how driving as an occupation may be affected/changed by AV, the pros and the cons of AV, a timeline for AV, as well as a discussion on the vulnerable road users and how they may benefit from AV. The presentation highlights that we are facing the greatest transportation revolution of the century and invite health care professionals to consider the opportunities of AV technology for mobility-disadvantaged people.

In this course, the author summarizes the development, use and clinical utility of the Fitness-to-Drive Screening Short-Form for identifying at-risk older drivers. Specifically, this training will examine the measure’s purpose, use, validity and reliability, development, and validation.

In this course, the author provides an overview of older adults’ transportation needs, the potential benefit of autonomous vehicle technology (AVT) to their health and safety, and results from a study conducted to determine older adults’ perception before and after being exposed to AVT (i.e. a driving simulator driving in autonomous mode and an automated shuttle). The presentation highlights implications for practice, policy and research.

To enable family members or friends, in the USA and Canada, to detect at-risk older drivers, Dr. Classen and colleagues, developed and tested the Fitness-to-Drive Screening Measure (FTDS), a user friendly on-line tool http://fitnesstodrive.phhp.ufl.edu/. Family members, caregivers, or friends who had driven with the driver in the last three months, may rate the drivers’ difficulties by completing 54 screening questions. After completing the questions a keyform, or rating profile, of each driver is produced which includes a classification of the driver into one of three categories: at-risk driver, routine driver, or accomplished driver. Based on the specific driver category, recommendations-- the logical next steps for family members, friends or clinicians-- are suggested for each driver. These recommendations entail guidelines for continued fitness to drive, seeking interventions, or starting conversations about stopping driving. The FTDS has been translated into Japanese and Korean with demonstrated psychometric support for the Korean version. A shorter version has been developed (32 items) with excellent predictive validity of fitness to drive outcomes. This course will discuss each of these core activities and apply content information to an actual case study.

This course starts by providing a background of crash statistics for the U.S. and introduces the concept of crash risk and crash risk reduction. Next, we provide an overview of terminology that is used in the driving literature, specifically related to driving outcomes. The audience is further exposed to a breadth of evidence-based methods and tools to help assess an individual’s fitness to drive. These assessments include the Comprehensive Driving Evaluation, which can be subdivided into clinical assessments, driving simulator assessments, and the on-road assessment. Dr. Classen is synopsizing the factual content in this course from almost two decades of exposure to empirical evidence and best practices –all packaged to enable clinicians to practice from an evidence-based perspective.

The Fitness to Drive Screening Measure (FTDS) is a web-based questionnaire for screening senior drivers who are potentially at-risk. The FTDS is completed by a family member or caregiver of the senior driver. The results of the FTDS provide recommendations for the next steps as well as resources. However, occupational therapists who are generalists or specialists in driving rehabilitation can also use the results of the FTDS to better manage their clients' plan of care. This presentation will provide participants with an overview of the FTDS development and application. Through case studies, participants will learn how to analyze the FTDS results with clinical findings to inform their decisions about whether an on-road assessment is necessary. Participants will also learn how to use the FTDS key form results to complement the on-road assessment and as such provide a more comprehensive treatment plan and recommendations.

Occupational therapists and other healthcare professionals play an important role in helping seniors adjust to driving cessation and use of alternative transportation. This presentation provides foundational knowledge about driving and the use of alternative transportation among seniors in North America. Participants will learn about assessment and intervention tools that can be used to assist seniors transitioning to alternative transportation. Through the presentation and observation of a role play, participants will learn about key strategies to use when having these potentially challenging conversations with seniors.

This course is designed for the healthcare professional who has experience in driving rehabilitation and is considering starting a private practice. The presenter provides an overview of information that needs to be gathered in order to make an informed decision about pursuing private practice. Participants will learn about business tools and strategies to guide their decision. In addition, the course includes a spreadsheet to create a financial plan for a driving rehabilitation practice.

This course will provide an overview of the development and use of a driving intervention tool, Drive Focus. The presenter will describe the tool’s evolution from an experience with a driving rehabilitation client to a visual-cognitive training application for driving. Participants will learn of the usability and efficacy studies that have been completed with the tool. In addition, participants will learn how Drive Focus may be used with clients in an in-patient, out-patient, or driving rehabilitation practice setting.