Fire Fighters Memorial Motorcycle Run & Benefit Party
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Tips to Help Overcome the Fear of Driving
Practice practice practice:
- To boost your confidence, drive to the end of the block and back or around an empty parking lot, then gradually go for longer drives.
- Ask someone to accompany you if that helps you relax.
Patience:
- Don’t start driving if you’re not calm and collected. Sit in the car and take deep breaths until you attain peace of mind and only then start the car and drive away.
- Yoga classes may help you become a more focused, calm and less distracted driver.
- If you get lost or experience panic, pull over until you calm down. Take as much time as you need. If you have a cell phone, call for directions.
Never get lost!
- A Global Positioning System (GPS) may lessen the fear of getting lost.
- No GPS? Print out the map directions from the Internet for those places you go frequently and keep them in the glove box.
Therapy:
Simple solutions to physical problems may help the mental and emotional pangs. For example, a spinner knob on the steering wheel allows accurate one-handed steering; hand controls replace feet for acceleration or braking—whatever the problem, there are solutions.
Occupational Therapists and Driver Rehabilitation Specialists can help. You can get a behind-the-wheel evaluation and recommendations for adaptive driving aids to help overcome many physical drawbacks. Whether the problem is muscle weakness, spasms or something else, therapists can address them.
Options For Driving From A Wheelchair
There are two options for a person who uses a wheelchair to drive an accessible vehicle. They can drive from their wheelchair and or transfer to the driver’s seat.
Drive from your wheelchair
Driving controls can be adapted to operate from your wheelchair. Usually this means some form of hand controls, though other solutions are possible. There will also be an automatic docking system to secure your wheelchair. All of this will be designed around you and your wheelchair as part of your assessment from an experienced mobility installer.
Safety
- Because you have the opportunity to travel by yourself, you need to be sure you are able to get out in an emergency.
- Typically wheelchair accessible vehicle have fail-safe devices for the doors, ramps/lifts and docking systems. These include battery backups and manual over-rides.
Other drivers
- In many wheelchair accessible vehicles, the front passenger seat can be switched to the drivers side, and there is a docking system on both sides so you can travel as a passenger.
Assessment and training
- If you’re going to be using adapted controls, you will need a professional driving assessment and training.
Transfer to the Driver’s Seat
Some wheelchair users prefer to transfer to a driving seat because they find it more comfortable or easier to drive. Sometimes it’s necessary because your wheelchair may not be suitable for driving. Using the standard car seat also means that you don’t need to fit a specialist seat belt.
By contrast, transferring into the driver seat may not be suitable if you have a specialist seating system in your wheelchair and may be difficult if you have limited mobility.
Wheelchair accessible vehicles can be adapted to allow you to enter with your wheelchair or scooter (by ramp or lift), secure the wheelchair or scooter in the vehicle, and then transfer to the driving seat. You can replace the standard car seat with one that swivels and slides so that you can transfer into it more easily.
Safety
- You will need a docking system for securing the wheelchair – you need to be able to do this by yourself.
- Because you may be traveling by yourself, you need to be sure you will be able to get out in an emergency.
Transferring
- Transferring between the wheelchair and the seat does take some effort – make sure you can do it even on a bad day.
- Make sure there is enough room in the vehicle to let you transfer comfortably and that there are handholds and supports where you need them. You may need to fit extra hand rails or other supports.
Assessment and training
- If you’re going to be using adapted controls, you will need a professional driving assessment and training.
Tuberculosis (TB) Awareness
Tuberculosis (TB) may seem like an obscure disease; perhaps you were once tested for it during a pre-employment or school physical. But for people in some countries, tuberculosis infection is a real threat, the symptoms are well known, and the death toll is still too high. With the emergence of resistant strains of TB, currently used medications are becoming less effective, and for some strains, treatment is extremely difficult.
And TB is more common than you may think. About one-third of the world’s population is currently infected with TB, with one new infection occurring every second. Not all infected people are sick with active TB; in fact, 90 percent have “walled off” the bacteria within their lungs and are not ill. But the other 10 percent will develop active, contagious tuberculosis each year, and each person who develops active TB will likely infect at least 10 to 15 other people before s/he is treated.
Tuberculosis Is All About Human Contact
Eradicating the tuberculosis infection in a particular country isn’t a matter of simply providing a clean water supply or non-contaminated food — it’s about setting up an organized system for recognizing the infection, treating it, and reducing transmission from person to person. Tuberculosis is spread by the tiny droplets that become airborne when a person with active TB coughs.
Preventing Tuberculosis Infection
Limiting transmission sounds simple in principle, but it is an elusive goal for many countries. To stop the spread of tuberculosis, people must be treated as soon as they contract it.
The United States has an extremely low incidence of tuberculosis — around 12,000 to 13,000 new diagnoses per year. That’s because the United States has the human resources, an existing healthcare system, and funds needed for controlling the disease. Many countries have none of these things. And those countries, including many in Asia and Africa, are still plagued with high numbers of tuberculosis cases. Effective medications are needed to control tuberculosis and unfortunately some parts of the world either can’t afford or can’t administer them.
How To Choose A Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle
When you’re choosing a wheelchair accessible vehicle, you need to think not only about all the same things you do when you’re choosing a standard car, but also other, more specific, things too. Just as when you’re choosing any other car, you may need to compromise and decide which features are most important to you.
Things To Consider
Size
- Will it fit on your driveway or in your garage? Don’t forget you need to think about the space required for the ramp/lift to be deployed
- Will it be easy to drive in traffic and on the roads you normally drive on?
Money
- What’s the price?
- If you’re buying it yourself, what’s the resale value likely to be?
- What will it cost you to insure?
- What’s the fuel consumption like?
Comfort and convenience
- Can you get in and out easily?
- Can you use the controls?
- Is it quiet and smooth when you’re driving?
- Is there good visibility for everyone in the vehicle?
Space
- Is there room for all the people and luggage you want to carry?
- What about times when you might want to carry a lot of luggage or equipment (ex. holidays)?
Features
- Does it have everything you need?
- What about air conditioning, automatic transmission, electric windows, remote start, heated seats, etc?
Performance
- Does it give you reasonable speed and acceleration?
- What about braking, ride and handling?
Specific considerations
Getting in and out
- Will you choose a ramp or a lift?
- Will you have someone to assist you?
- Can you get in and out without hitting your head or having to duck?
Traveling position
- Where will your wheelchair sit?
- Will you be able to see out of the windows?
- Will you be able to talk to other people easily?
Safety
- How will you secure yourself and your wheelchair?
- How will you secure any equipment you use to get in and out?
- How will you secure anything else (unattended wheelchair, luggage, equipment, etc)?
Reliability
- Can you rely on the equipment you use to get in and out?
- What happens if it breaks down?
- Are there manual over-rides for any powered equipment?
- Do you have a suitable dealer nearby for servicing?
Build quality
- Different conversions have been built to different standards, so some will be more comfortable and less noisy inside than others.