If you or a loved one has ever suffered from a concussion, then you know first-hand just how hard it can be to deal with this “invisible” injury. Because of the nature of concussions, there are usually no physical signs of injury, and in a lot of cases, it’s hard for the person suffering to explain what it is they are experiencing, and why it can make things so difficult to manage in our daily lives. Professional sports have done a great deal of bringing awareness to the world of concussion, but unfortunately, the media often falls short of explaining exactly what concussions are, what to look for, how to identify them, and most of all how you can be active in recovering from a concussion.
In the professional sports world, each sports team has teams of multiple types of healthcare providers to help detect and treat concussions. Unfortunately, most athletes do not have this type of access, and therefore a missed concussion is a much higher risk. Now, what can you do as a non-healthcare professional? This is where the Concussion Recognition Tool 6 comes in; this tool was specifically designed with the non-medically trained person in mind. It gives you specifics on things to look out for when a concussion is suspected, and tells you when you should seek medical intervention. This tool can be used by anyone, including coaches, parents, referees, and other adults to help detect if a concussion has been sustained by an individual.
Now that you’ve helped to identify a concussion, what are the next steps for optimal recovery? Most people think that once you are diagnosed with a concussion that it’s just a waiting game until your brain heals. We think resting our brains is the best way to recover, but if you think about how we rehab the rest of our bodies, we don’t just rest and hope it goes back to normal; instead, we use specific movements and treatments to help speed up our recovery. This is exactly how we should be treating our brains as well; but it has to be specific. No two concussions are alike, and this is why an individual tailored rehabilitation plan of care is so important in helping speed up the recovery from a concussion.
Dr. Easton Reedenmeyer, DPT, AIB-VRC is certified in the treatment of concussion. He will be happy to answer any questions, and to be a resource for the community. You can also check-out our website for more details on concussion and post-concussion syndrome in the mean-time until the seminar.