Background: Return to driving is pivotal to community reintegration post-stroke. People with aphasia, their caregivers and clinicians have identified return to driving post-stroke as a top ten research priority; however, people with aphasia have largely been excluded from current research. Little is known about whether language impairment impacts driving performance, and to date no research has considered the impact of aphasia on the process of returning to driving or not.
Aims: To understand the lived experience of people with aphasia who return to driving or not post-stroke.
Methods: A qualitative descriptive study reported in line with the Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research (2014). Fifteen people with aphasia participated in semi-structured interviews over Zoom, using patient journey mapping as a framework to explore “touch points” with services and emotional experiences relating to returning to driving or not post-stroke. Video data were transcribed for speech and non-speech communication and analysed using inductive qualitative content analysis.
Results: Preliminary analysis has identified the following themes: (1) “Too much paperwork”: Communication requirements in navigating return to driving and driving cessation; (2) “They should have warned me”: Poor communication with people with aphasia; (3) “I will just keep on asking you”: The onus is on people with aphasia to instigate and pursue return to driving; (4) “What happens to those who don’t have an Anna?”: People with aphasia need support to navigate return to driving and driving cessation and; (5) “If I had my car, I'll be able to actually start to have a life”: The importance of driving for people with aphasia.
Conclusion: People with aphasia experience unique barriers in returning to driving and navigating driving cessation post-stroke. Increased awareness of these barriers is urgently needed to ensure that communication difficulties do not unduly disadvantage people with aphasia who seek to resume driving post-stroke.