Hello and welcome to Living In The Lehigh Valley, where our focus is your health and wellness.

I'm your host, Brittany Sweeney.

When someone faces the prospect of never driving again because of a physical or cognitive disability, that's a tough reality to handle.

After all, driving offers a sense of independence.

It gives us the convenience and freedom to go wherever, whenever we like.

It's a big deal to see all that go away because of a spinal cord injury or Parkinson's disease or cognitive decline.

That said, there is hope.

Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network offers a driver evaluation and training program that just might help you stay behind the wheel.

Our own Grover Silcox joins me now with more.

Always great to see you.

- Great to be here, Britt.

- OK, so this is a pretty cool program that helps people stay in that driver's seat a little bit longer.

- That's right, because it's tough when someone has to give up driving after so many years because of a physical impairment or cognitive decline.

- Sure.

We all know someone, whether it's an elderly family member or someone else, who's been driving all of their life and then all of a sudden they have those privileges revoked.

- And that's why Good Shepherd's driving evaluation and training program is so important, and programs like it.

- This sounds really cool.

Tell us about this program.

- It really is.

Now, Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network's driving evaluation and training program can help a wide range of people.

According to government data, traffic deaths among people ages 65 and older have been rising, with a spike of 14% since 2021.

This statistic underscores the need to perform a driver evaluation and perhaps special training for folks who begin to exhibit cognitive and coordination problems as they age.

Folks with a spinal cord injury or medical condition that might make driving prohibitive can benefit from a program such as the one I learned about at Good Shepherd.

Folks faced with never driving again because of a disability or cognitive impairment find new hope through Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network's adaptive driving and safe driving evaluation programs.

- I had neck surgery about a year and a half ago and ran into some nerve complications from that surgery.

I went from a person who was just active, climbing, dancing, playing tennis, soccer, you name it, and suddenly I was no longer able to walk on my own.

Complications affected my right side, which really then limited my ability to drive.

- 41-year-old Sarah Yaklic thought she'd never drive again because of her disability.

- She was actually getting ready to sell her car, and the therapist that she was working with said, Oh, we have a driving program, I think you should go check them out.

- After getting a clinical evaluation, Sarah began working with Colette Heffernan, Good Shepherd's driver training specialist for behind the wheel training using adaptive technology in the network's Chevy Malibu.

- With the complications from eye surgery affecting my right side, I was not able to move my foot up or down, and so I could not accelerate or brake.

So any type of driving was completely off limits.

And what I did here at Good Shepherd was I learned how to use my left foot.

First day of training here, it was an evaluation process.

And once I passed that, then we moved on to the road portion.

- Based on their clinical evaluation, Good Shepherd's therapist suggested that Sarah use an adaptive left sided gas pedal.

- You know, it's a new experience, left gas pedal.

And it was a little rough in the beginning.

But I want to say, after the second, third time we were out, she was doing fine.

And she's being independent, doing what she wants to do, going where she wants to go.

- Colette helped Sarah through getting tested by the state at a local DMV all the way to having the adaptive technology installed in her vehicle.

- The program at Good Shepherd really does make me feel like a 100% confident driver.

- 31-year-old Ruth Aragon serves as an administrative assistant at Good Shepherd.

But she first came here as a patient after a spinal cord injury paralyzed both her legs.

- They helped me sign up for the program, you know, went through the classes, through all the modifications for my car.

And, yeah, they got me back literally on my feet.

- Ruth never lets her disability stop her from going where she wants to go.

- I have to, like, break up my wheelchair, you know, put it in the car, put it back out and things like that.

Some patients, they don't have the core strength.

It's not just physical therapy, but doing things on your own as well, you know, like making sure that you're physical enough to be able to, like, transfer it.

- She can't use her lower extremities, so our options are hand controls.

So she uses left sided hand controls with a spinner knob.

And then we have an accelerator block to block out the gas pedal so that she can't overaccelerate using the hand controls on the gas pedal.

- As with Sarah and most of her patients, Colette guided Ruth through getting tested by the state to equipping her car with adaptive equipment.

- I was driving prior to my injury.

So, you know, going from doing everything with your feet to everything with your hands, it was a little challenging.

- Six months after she began training with Colette, Ruth passed her driver's test and got her license.

- Having that one on one session, you know, like - getting to feel what it's like to drive with hand controls and, you know, practicing and, you know, experiencing that yourself, it means a lot.

I feel really thankful for, you know, the people that God has put in my life and thankful for all the stuff that helps us.

- Good Shepherd also helps folks, many over 65, with neurological issues which might keep them from driving.

- Sometimes we get a family member calling to refer their parents or grandparents because they're concerned with their cognition, the way they're driving.

We make the recommendation whether they can drive or not, but the doctor has the final say.

It's not always set in stone that they can't drive if they come to us.

It depends on the level.

- Good Shepherd's comprehensive adaptive driving and safe driving evaluation programs have helped so many people, from young to old, stay behind the wheel long after they thought their driving days were over.

- I just want people to know that for the most part there's hope for them, and I would recommend them coming to have a driving evaluation before they cease driving.

Don't give up.

- The Good Shepherd Driving Evaluation and training program helps not only the drivers but also their physicians, who require the evaluations to officially certify whether or not the individual is capable of driving safely.

- Really neat program, Grover, giving older folks the ability to stay in the driver's seat longer, and then people with disabilities, giving them new technology and techniques to stay behind the wheel.

- That's exactly right.

And I should add that the evaluation program at Good Shepherd is often covered by insurance, but the behind the wheel, hands on, in the car training costs $176 an hour, which, if you can afford it, is well worth it, according to Ruth and Sarah, whom I interviewed in the piece.

- They're on the younger side.

They have a lot of life to live.

So I'm sure they want to get around the best they can.

- And they are.

- Really hopeful program.

Grover, thank you so much for sharing that with us.

- Welcome.

- All right.

That'll do it for this edition of Living In The Lehigh Valley.

I'm Brittany Sweeney, hoping you stay happy and healthy.