I’m Tony Baratta. Today, I’d like to talk about TBI survivors and driving. In the United States and maybe the world, movement equals health. This is certainly the case in the United States, where a car is king, and driving our car is symbolic with our freedom. It’s symbolic with our health.
Driving a car means freedom
Have you ever tried to take the car keys away from your elderly parents? Do you know how important a car is to our freedom? And a TBI victim may not be able to safely drive a car anymore. This is very problematic and causes a great deal of depression for the TBI survivor.
When can a TBI survivor drive again?
So when is it safe for a TBI survivor to return to the road? What we recommend to our clients is that we engage a driving rehabilitation specialist. A driving rehabilitation specialist can focus on the sole task of getting the TBI survivor ready to drive a vehicle again.
A driving rehabilitation specialist
That specialist takes all of the information that’s been accumulated by the treating physicians, occupational therapists, and neuropsychologists to try to understand the TBI survivor’s limitations. And then they design a program to help address those limitations.
They first start with an off-the-road training program and then proceed with an on-the-road training program. Through that process, the driving rehabilitation specialist learns what limitations the TBI survivor has. They can help them to accumulate the necessary adaptive skills to be able to understand and recognize their limitations, so that they can safely drive a motor vehicle again. My name is Tony Baratta, and I hope this has been helpful to you.
