Evaluation of Driver Rehabilitation Stakeholder’s Perceived Needs and Barriers

Research Objectives: To investigate the perspective of community healthcare stakeholders on driver rehabilitation needs and service barriers in a rural Midwest region.

Design: This short-term descriptive study used a quantitative survey research design to collect information from stakeholders on driver rehabilitation in a rural Midwest region.

Setting: Snowball sampling was used to distribute surveys to healthcare facilities, including inpatient and outpatient services in the region.

Participants: 53 participants included: occupational therapists, certified occupational therapy assistants, physical therapists, speech-language pathologists, ophthalmologists, optometrists, physicians, and physician assistants.

Interventions: N/A

Main Outcome Measures: Analyze stakeholders knowledge of driver rehabilitation services and the barriers to program development. Descriptive statistics including frequencies, percentages, and medians were used to analyze the data.

Results: Most participants, reported being somewhat familiar (n=20, 37%) with driver rehabilitation. Of healthcare providers who reported at least slight familiarity, 52.2% (n=24), most were slightly (n=6, 11.3%) to not at all familiar (n=7, 13.2%) with local driver rehabilitation services in their region. Awareness of local services (n=35, 85.4%) was the most identified barrier to utilization of driver rehab services. The top barrier to program development identified by professionals was funding to develop a program (n=33, 84.6%). With sampling from a rural region, transportation and distance from services were also top barriers identified in study results. Of 42 responses, a majority of providers (n=34, 81.0%) answered no services were being met. Further, 95.2% (n=40) of providers said their community could benefit from more driver rehabilitation programs.

Conclusions: According to the findings of this study, the perceived need for driver rehabilitation services is unmet by participants which may negatively affect individuals impacted by age-related challenges, neurological conditions, and disabilities. Barriers regarding funding, reimbursement, and the number of trained specialists were most prevalent, suggesting they have an impact on use of driver rehabilitation services. By bringing awareness to driver rehabilitation, providers and patients gain insight into community resources that promote independence and improve quality of life.

Author(s) Disclosures: N/A