Task Force to Address Concussion Issues in High School Sports
By Sarah Bonanno
County Executive Rob Astorino announced the formation Monday of the Westchester County Concussion Task Force to help high schools address the public health concern of sports-related concussions.
Headed by Dr. Mark Herceg, the county’s commissioner of Community Mental Health, the task force will develop a voluntary management protocol for high schools. The group will be comprised of 20 experts ranging from school district athletic directors, trainers, neurologists and psychologists.
The initiative, dubbed Safer Sports, is part of Astorino’s broader Safer Communities campaign, which educates community members on countywide public health and safety issues, such as heroin use, sexual assault on college campuses and youth mental health.
According to the Center for Disease Control, 45 million children across the country participate in sports. Between 1.6 million and 1.8 million of those participants will suffer a sports-related concussion and 85 percent of those children will heal and recover appropriately.
“In examining this climate, the dialogue centers on prevention and education, and I thought we had to form a task force…to look at management: how do we manage the concussion from beginning to end,” Herceg said.
This summer the task force will create an optional model program for districts to implement that will focus on teaching parents, teachers, coaches and students how to prevent and manage a concussion. The first educational conference will take place on Aug. 20 at the County Center in White Plains. Experts from across the country will speak.
“We want to increase education, understanding and preparedness so we can mitigate any lasting effects that might happen if a concussion does occur,” Astorino said. “We also want to improve the coordination of the many available resources to benefit athletes, schools and facilities.”
Herceg said one of the task force’s main goals is to evaluate how districts manage and address concussions to ensure that students, parents and teachers receive the proper information.
“Part of it is to get away from some of the misinformation about it, to break down the realities versus the myths,” Astorino said.
One of the most common pieces of misinformation, Herceg said, is the popular use of impact testing, a 20-minute neurocognitive computer assessment, administered by non-experts to diagnose and manage concussions. Herceg advocates that families instead rely on trained specialists to make diagnoses and determine how to manage a concussion.
“I call this the Goldilocks problem – too hot, too cold, just right,” said task force member Dr. Ronald Jacobson, chief of pediatric neurology at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital in Valhalla. “Concussion is often over-diagnosed and is simultaneously under-diagnosed. Not in the same patient, obviously, but I think that getting it right is really what the answer has to be.”
Astorino said he wants the task force to not only raise awareness about proper concussion management, but also to help encourage children to safely participate in sports.
“It’s not about scaring parents. It’s not about pushing kids out of sports,” Astorino said. “We want our kids involved with sports. It keeps them healthy, all the things that are involved with a sports team, the camaraderie, the learning, that’s important to growing up. It’s about educating our parents, educating our coaches and dealing with issues and injuries if they happen.”
The Aug. 20 conference, which begins at 5:30 p.m., is open to the public at no charge. Parents, coaches and teachers are encouraged to attend. Refreshments will be served. Those interested in attending should RSVP Deetra Santos at dys1@westchestergov.com or 914-995-5245.
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