Driving and Community Mobility: Occupational Therapy Strategies Across the Lifespan

The scope of driving and community mobility includes readiness to drive, to competence to drive, to the transition to alternative modes of transportation. The issues are complex, and the consequences related in independence in driving and community mobility are life-altering. <P>This publication gathers researchers and clinicians in a team effort to offer expert guidance for occupational therapy's work in the ever-developing practice area of driving and community mobility. Topics include psychosocial considerations, ethics, cognition, vision, evaluation, adaptive equipment, older drivers, and youth with special needs. <P>This work includes a flash drive containing client resources, fact sheets, guides, assessments, articles, and Web resources.

Mary Jo McGuire, MS, OTR/L, FAOTA is the founder and director of a group of occupational therapists in private practice in Akron, Ohio, who serve clients in the home and community as Medicare Part B providers. Their clinical work focuses on older adults who are aging in place and on survivors of traumatic brain injury. <P>Elin Schold Davis, OTR/L, CDRS, is the Older Driver Initiative Project Coordinator for the American Occupational Therapy Association. She is a member of the American Society on Aging's DriveWell Speaker's Bureau; a member of the Transportation Research Board's Safe Mobility for Older Persons Committee; a member of the National Older Driver Safety Advisory Council; and AOTA's national liaison-instructor for CarFit, a program that offers older adults the opportunity to check how well their personal vehicles fit them to increase safety.