Citation

Waller PF. Proc. Am. Assoc. Automot. Med. Annu. Conf. 1978; 22(2): 125-131.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1978, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

All states administer programs in driver licensing and improvement and in health and social services. It is proposed that a cooperative effort by the agencies responsible for these programs could perhaps better achieve goals of mutual interest. Two specific efforts are described. First, it is proposed that driver licensing programs represent an excellent opportunity to screen the majority of the adult population for the detection of certain health problems shown to be associated with poorer driving, e.g., hypertension. As is presently done in the case of vision testing, the examiner could refer for more expert medical evaluation wherever appropriate. Follow-up and evaluation could be handled automatically through renewal license procedures. Second, driver improvement personnel may be of more service to the problem driver by informing him of a variety of health and social services available in his community. The "problem driver" is frequently a person with problems that have spilled over into his driving, and traditional driver improvement measures are not relevant. Other resources may be of more benefit and lead to improved driver performance. In all instances driver-related decisions would remain in the hands of the licensing authorities, while health and social service decisions would be made by the appropriate professionals. These proposed efforts represent low cost approaches to achieving more effectively some of the overall goals of state government through crossing traditional agency boundaries and capitalizing on existing resources.