Why Occupational Therapy?

Occupational therapy practitioners assist individuals with medical conditions with everyday activities.  They encourage individuals to build or regain abilities in the things they need and want to do to maintain or improve their quality of life.   

Occupational therapists are highly skilled evaluators in the areas of vision, perception, motor or physical, and cognition, all being critical for being able to drive.   

Thus, occupational therapists are ideal professionals to evaluate an individual for fitness to drive and those how specialize in this area are called:  Driving rehabilitation specialists or DRS. 

The Spectrum of Driver Services is a seminal document that was developed to illustrate to consumers and health care providers how to distinguish the diverse services for older adults.  

While other professionals use the title Driver/driving Rehabilitation Specialist, the best professional education background for a driving rehabilitation specialist is an occupational therapist.  This is because of occupational therapy’s solid knowledge base in medical conditions,  experience as a licensed medical professional recognized by Medicare and other insurance companies, and finally their skills in understanding how to analyze the steps and levels of difficulty in highly complex activities such as driving.