Leaders from the state’s sports, education and medical communities gathered on the football field of Brandywine High School Wednesday to announce a plan to better address the treatment of concussions for young people.
The strategy was developed by the Delaware Youth Concussion Summit after its May meeting. Organized by the State Council for Persons with Disabilities Brain Injury Committee, Nemours/A.I. duPont Hospital for Children and the Brain Injury Association of Delaware, the goal of the summit's recommendations is to minimize the trauma that can occur after receiving a head injury, insisting that current procedures are lacking.
Concussions are the most common type of traumatic brain injury, and are often caused by a sudden direct blow or bump to the head. Around 1 million children each year suffer concussions and more than 30 thousand incur long-term disabilities as a result of the injury. Proper recognition of the common physical, mental, and emotional symptoms of a concussion can better lead to appropriate treatment.
However, improper treatment of concussions can lead to lasting issues, including depression, anxiety, headaches, difficulty with thinking and concentrating, and impaired motor skills and balance.
DHSS secretary Rita Landgraf says the Youth Concussion Summit recommendations offer a game plan for preventing any young person from having to live with those issues “whether it’s through continued education of young athletes, coaches and parents; or a training program for our physicians so we have consistent diagnosis and treatment of concussions across all of our healthcare providers; or improved equipment or changes in our sports rules.”
The Summit makes the following three suggestions:
• Establish a uniform documentation protocol between the medical community and the schools, for both sports and non-sports related concussions. • Develop a training program for healthcare providers focused on the diagnosis and management of concussions. Consider statutory change that would require physicians who manage concussion to complete approved training in diagnosis, management and return to school and sports activity. • Establish a Youth Sports Advisory Council to address education and regulation of community, recreational and travel sports programs.
Student-athlete Rich Hill, a senior on Bandywine's football team sustained two concussions in his high school football career. After a hit this past fall in a game against Archmere, Hill made the decision to pull himself out the game and let his coaches know about his injury. Understanding the seriousness, he now calls it "the best decision of my life."
"It helped me come back faster," Hill said. "If I get anything out of the concussion is to take it seriously and don't play around with it, because it really can affect you. It's frustrating because I wanted to get better, but in order to get better I had to do nothing, and that didn't make sense and I didn't understand it. I understand it now, but the hardest thing is to get better."
A.I. DuPont/Nemours neuropsychologist Dr. Jane Crowley says the time is right to act now that neurocognitive testing is providing a better understanding of how to diagnose and treat concussions
"They do a lot to help us understand how quickly a kid should return to going back to class and learning, certainly back to contact sport,” Crowley said. “They need to satisfy meeting the normative values for their age, or ideally if they’ve had the same test as a baseline test in their schools, they have to meet their baseline scores.”
Baseline tests are used to assess an athlete’s balance and brain function, as well as for the presence of any concussion symptoms. Results from baseline tests (or pre-injury tests) can be used and compared to a similar exam conducted by a health care professional during the season if an athlete has a suspected concussion.
Brandywine Superintendent Mark Holodick says his district has taken steps, including baseline testing for athletes, to improve the way they react to possible concussions.
"We have the impact testing going on that gives us a quality baseline for our high school students that are playing high-impact sports,” Holodick said. “When we do have a concussion that occurs we can measure how that student is recovering and when they are able to return to the athletic field. Any proactive measure that we can take to respond more appropriately to that kind of injury, the better.”
According to Dr. Crowley, the Delaware Youth Concussion Summit will contiunue to operate in working groups to advance their agenda, and efforts are underway within the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association (DIAA) to develop practical ways to put the plan's recommendations into practice.