"Mind Your Matter"

Kim Gorgens, a neuropsychologist, addressed concussions and how to protect our brains in a TedTalk titled "Protecting the Brain Against Concussion." I chose to watch this video because, with the prevalence of concussions in youth sports, I thought it would be important to understand them more and ways to prevent them. 

From Dr. Gorgens's presentation, one of the main pieces of information that stood out to me is that a brain can recover from AN injury. When a person gets a single concussion, they become more likely to get more. This is practical information to know from an OT standpoint because when working with clients, if you know the person has a history of concussion, you can be proactive in teaching safety as well as educating on the increased risk of getting another one. Another piece of information that I thought was important to know is that a concussion does not just occur when their is a loss of consciousness, but simply a change in consciousness. This can be how the person is acting, how their vision is, if they hear ringing, or even if they feel dizzy. Being able to identify these signs and symptoms can help people look out for concussions. Now, the main point that Dr. Gorgens was trying to make in her presentation was how to protect brains from concussion. The main way that she emphasized doing this was to wear a helmet. The average concussive impact is about 95 Gs, and wearing a helmet can decrease these forces by half. By wearing a helmet, a person can prevent the injury and a bad outcome. She puts this into perspective by sharing a story about one of her grad students who started wearing a helmet and said that he got it because wearing a $20 helmet can protect his $100,000 graduate education.

In order to further my learning, I looked into the resources that Dr. Gorgens mentioned in her talk. One was the HEADS UP website made by the CDC, and the other was the Colorado Kids with Brain Injury (links below). Both of these websites provided a definition of what a concussion is and resources with the signs and symptoms. The CDC website had various handouts in English and Spanish that were targeted towards parents, coaches, officials, and the athletes themselves. The Colorado Kids website had a specific concussion page. On this page, there were videos about concussions as well as Colorado specific legislation and concussion management.

Gorgens, K. (2010, May). Protecting your brain against concussions [Video]. https://www.ted.com/talks/kim_gorgens_protecting_the_brain_against_concussion

https://www.cdc.gov/headsup/youthsports/index.html

https://cokidswithbraininjury.com/concussion/