Authors

Kathryn Townsend                MAOT; Grad.Cert.HealthSciences; BOccTher

Kathryn is a senior clinician occupational therapist in Melbourne and is currently working in a community health setting. She is a very experienced occupational therapist having worked in a variety of clinical settings, including a community occupational therapy service for veterans and war widows, inpatient aged care setting with a focus on discharge planning, inpatient rehabilitation and home-based services. Kathryn is a trained occupational therapy driver assessor. Her interest in powered mobility device assessment and training developed 10 years ago, when safety concerns were raised about a client’s ability to use his scooter. Kathryn developed the original version of the assessment tool, which was later developed into the PoMoDATT. The PoMoDATT inter-rater reliability study was completed as part of the course requirements for her Masters in Advanced Occupational Therapy. She has conducted workshops and conference presentations and published articles about powered mobility device use. Kathryn is passionate about the way that PMD use can positively impact on users’ quality of life and community participation.

Carolyn A. Unsworth                     PhD; BAppSci (Occ.Ther)

Professor Carolyn Unsworth is Discipline Lead Occupational Therapy at Federation University Australia. Carolyn’s research focuses on enabling people with age-related health declines or disabilities to access the community through driving a car or using powered wheelchairs or mobility scooters. She conducts research on the assessment of fitness-to-drive, determining the most effective rehabilitation interventions for people wishing to resume driving after accident or injury, improving access for people using powered mobility devices on public transport and ensuring people have the skills to powered mobility devices safely. In addition to her work on development of the PoMoDATT, Carolyn has also developed a clinic-based assessment of fitness-to-drive (OT-DORA Battery) and a patient outcome measure (AusTOMs-OT www.austoms.com), which are all used internationally. Professor Unsworth has published over 130 journal articles and book chapters, and two books.