In October’s ‘Driving Mobility Centre of the Month’ we focus our spotlight on South Wales Mobility & Driving Assessment Service in Rookwood Hospital in Llandaff Cardiff
They offer impartial and professional advice that will enable people who are elderly or have a disability to achieve their optimum level of independent outdoor mobility.
South Wales Mobility & Driving Assessment Service (SWMDAS) service set up by Nell Edwards MBE over 30 years ago, operating from a small shop in Cardiff for a few years, but it soon became apparent that they needed to move to bigger and better premises.
After several years of negotiating SWMDAS finally merged with Rookwood Hospital and moved their premises in 1991. They became accredited by the Forum of Assessment Centres UK, which is now Driving Mobility.
Initially, they only assessed on 2 days per week at Rookwood, slowly becoming busier as demand for the service grew.
Sandra Hutchings – Director of Services has worked for the service for 35 years, Helen Mundell and Jeff Botwood both for over 28 years, and have all seen a lot of changes, including the opening of the outreach service in Pembroke Dock.
They started assessing drivers there once a month and now assess at least once a week as demand has increased.
In 2017 they started the Fitness to Drive scheme with Dyfed Powys Police, which has been very successful, and are planning to go live with South Wales Police in October/November 2021.
SWMDAS started up their own Driver Training Scheme, where Advanced Driving Instructors (ADI’s) undertake lessons using their vehicles after office hours. This has proved very successful, as there are limited driving schools locally with car adaptations, and they now have a waiting list for this service.
Owing to their success the team is aiming to move to new premises at the Rookwood site after Christmas 2021. The new building will be more suitable for the range of services they provide and with more consulting rooms, which will increase assessments and for the service to develop further.
We wish everyone the best of luck!
If you are local to the Cardiff area and want to find out more about how the South Wales Mobility & Driving Assessment Service team could help you or someone you know please visit:
Tel: 029 2055 5130
Email: info@wddac.co.uk
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