Driving Consultation and Intervention

Publisher Summary In a society like ours, driving has become essential to independence and the loss of driving privileges has much personal significance. Driving needs to be a focus of active rehabilitative attention, coordinated by Driver Rehabilitation Specialists. Driving consultation is a clinical evaluation and counseling service designed to help at-risk drivers in deciding whether, when, where, and how to drive. This chapter draws attention to the clinical, human service aspects of consulting with at-risk drivers, would-be drivers, and their families. A distillation of experiences is provided in working with survivors of brain injury who wish to resume driving; training clinicians who are running or setting up driver rehabilitation units; and developing and coordinating research on two computerized driving advisement protocols and, like most people in our society; and being a resource for those people who have had to address these issues. The take-home message is the clinical aspect of driving consultation. The emphasis should be on safe mobility for life, even when that means independent community mobility without driving.