Coinciding with the March madness of National Athletic Training Month, the 5th Annual Youth Sports Safety Summit and NATA’s annual Capitol Hill Day in Washington, D.C., there is another March designation that deserves your attention: Brain Injury Awareness Month. Spearheaded by the Brain Injury Association of America and its affiliates, the goal is to improve quality and access of care to the 2.4 million Americans who will sustain a brain injury this year. “Brain injuries do not discriminate,” warns the 2014 poster. (More information and advocacy materials can be found here.)
According to the BIAA website, about 75 percent of traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) each year come in the form of concussions or similarly mild TBIs, which is where NATA’s official position statement on managing sport concussions comes in. Published in its entirety in this month’s Journal of Athletic Training, the thorough statement addresses much of what the BIAA is advocating – as well as education, prevention, documentation, and legal aspects and evaluation issues of youth sport concussions. Most importantly, the statement addresses return-to-play considerations, and recommends no return-to-play on the day an athlete is concussed. Click here to read the full statement.
Did you know March was Brain Injury Awareness Month? How did you hear about it?
by Jaimie Siegle, Editorial Specialist (jaimies@nata.org)
