Managing Concussions in Schools

This book provides school personnel with information on how concussion (mild traumatic brain injury) can affect learning, mental health, and social-emotional functioning, skills in developing and leading a school-based concussion support team, tools for school-based concussion assessment, and information on a safe, gradual process of returning to the academic environment. It explains what happens to the brain at the moment of impact, terminology, prevalence rates, causes, risk factors, and issues related to underreporting of concussions. Educators will learn about developmental effects, how concussions can affect students of different ages, as well as difficulties that can result from concussions such as postconcussion syndrome and second impact syndrome. This book presents a school-based concussion team model, including the specific responsibilities of the concussion team leader (CTL), and a discussion of maintaining student privacy through regulations like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. Readers are familiarized with checklists that can be used within the school and assessment tools such as Acute Concussion Evaluation (ACE) and neuropsychological assessment. Readers are also familiarized with how physical and cognitive rest can be balanced with a return to activity during the recovery period. This book also book gives concussion team members guidance on the selection of appropriate strategies, as well as decision making during a student’s return to academics, and discusses concussion prevention information by providing guidance on how readers might train others on concussion recognition and response. Case studies are integrated throughout the chapters.