Submission to the Assessing Fitness to Drive Standards Review

The APS provided a submission to the National Transport Commission’s initial phase of its review of the Assessing Fitness to Drive (AFTD) Standards.

In this submission, we showed that psychology has a substantial contribution to fitness to drive assessment but that this is not consistently recognised across the current Standards. We called for the review to reflect our profession’s role in assessing the cognitive, behavioural and psychosocial capacities that underpin safe driving.

Drawing on the expert input of APS members, key recommendations put forward in this submission include:

• Explicitly and consistently naming psychology alongside other professions in the Standards’ assessment and referral pathways, reflecting the multidisciplinary nature of fitness to drive assessment in practice.
• Extending recognition of neuropsychological assessment beyond head injury and severe chronic conditions to the full range of relevant neurological, neurodevelopmental and psychiatric presentations, including stroke, progressive neurological conditions, sleep disorders and longstanding substance use.
• Articulating a clearer multidisciplinary pathway between psychologists and GPs, including shared-care arrangements and psychology-led training and supervision support in the context of fitness to drive assessments.
• Building person-centred transition planning and psychological support into the Standards for people facing driving cessation, and addressing equity gaps for rural, remote, low-income, cross-border and culturally diverse communities.
• Reviewing suspension processes to reduce disproportionate psychological burden, including overly risk-averse responses to cognitive concerns raised without formal diagnosis, and unrealistic notice timeframes.
• Supporting the review’s focus on evidence-based practice but highlighting the importance of retaining cautions about the limits of the evidence base, particularly regarding generalisability to First Nations communities and other groups.

The APS looks forward to working with the NTC throughout the review process to support the development of revised Standards which recognise the full contribution of psychology to the promotion of safe driving in Australia.

View submission