Hey everyone, the 2019 Occupational Therapy Conference was full of fun and learnings that we decided to make a part 2 of our blog post. Here, we feature all the talks from various OT Professionals and their research that was specific for driving. Check it out ?
Revision of competency standards
Revision of the competency standards for driver assessors. This talk is done by Sally Fields. Now the talk is all about looking to change the structure and align with the OT standard to really streamline and reduce duplication – make it really specific to driving. For more information about this talk Contact sally.fields@cqumail.com or her research partner, Professor Caroline Unsworth c.unsworth@cqu.edu.au
Use of simulators in driver rehabilitation
Use of a driving simulator for driving rehabilitation & general cognitive rehabilitation is a talk from Professor Caroline Unsworth wherein the Professor talks about the Simulator at the university in Sydney called forum8. It’s not for use for assessments as the gold standard is the on-road assessments. But this can be used for training, practice and rehabilitation.
Social return on investment for modified vehicles
Angela Berndt presented recent research findings regarding the social impact of modifying a vehicle. We love this article so much. One, because we were involved in the gathering of data for the study. But two, because it shows just how much value is involved in approving funding for vehicle modifications.
Just have a look at these figures. ?
We love it so much that we did an interview with one of the authors of the article in a separate blog post. You can find it here https://www.williamsot.com/crunching-the-numbers-social-return-on-investment-of-vehicle-modifications/
Community participation after loss of licence
Improving Community Participation Following Complex Trauma-Injury by Stacey George from Flinders University.
Have you ever thought about what happens to the clients that actually can’t drive or are not safe to drive anymore? Some community assistance would be good for this. So they are implementing the CarFreeMe Program which is a 6-day program about adjusting to change or their experiences to no-driving. For more information, you can go to www.carfreeme.com.au
3-D scanners in assessments
Using a 3D Scanner to Look at the Environment of Which people need to access in their wheelchairs by Professor Caroline Unsworth
Professor Caroline talks about their scanner from the university which scans the user’s wheelchair and scans the environment of the buses are wheelchair accessible and vice versa. And she’s also talked about this in scanning a van. For more information about this, you may contact Professor Caroline at c.unsworth@cqu.edu.au
On-road assessment standards
This last one is by Marylyn Stefano and her study/talk is available on OTAus membership website. Just log in using your membership details and on the search bar, type “OT Driver Test”
