Sep 10, 2020Concussions Still on the Mind in Football
With the start of the NFL season kicking off Thursday night, and with NCAA and high school football already underway in many states amid the COVID-19 pandemic, some sports health professionals are still mindful of concussions.
In a recent article on the NWITimes.com, one licensed athletic trainer and physical therapist, John Doherty opined that while proper attention should be paid to combatting the pandemic, equal attention should still be given to concussions.
He pointed to a study published last November from the Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio that identified the barriers to reporting concussions for coaches, players, and parents — some of which are self-imposed.
In sharing its findings, Nationwide Children’s issued a press release that noted all 50 states implemented laws that addressed concussion education, removal from play after suspicion of concussions, and return-to-play requirements. But as the release went further, however, the study showed that athletic trainers that were surveyed complained that the education materials for coaches, players, and parents often used complex medical terms, did not require active learning, and were frequently unavailable in other needed languages.
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“Aside from language barriers, according to the Nationwide Children’s press release, “Athletic trainers noted a lack of buy-in to state law requirements from both coaches and parents, who may not understand the potential severity of these injuries, which, in turn, made scheduling a time for this training and full compliance with school concussion policies challenging,” Doherty wrote. “The barriers to removal from play were associated with athletes’ attitudes towards concussion and concussion reporting as well as their unwillingness to disclose concussion symptoms and resistance from coaches and parents. Sports culture and ‘old school’ mentality of parents and coaches that encourage athletes to ‘play through it’ and ‘toughen up’ can create an environment that is not conducive to athletes reporting symptoms.”
To read the full article from John Doherty on NWITimes.com, click here.
