The Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine UK (FSEM) is supporting new Concussion Guidelines for the Education Sector, produced by the Forum on Concussion in Sport and Physical Education in conjunction with the Sport and Recreational Alliance.
The guidelines have been created in order to alleviate parental concerns around the safety of school sport and to ensure a consistent and suitable management protocol is available to those working with children in the education sector.
Endorsed by an independent expert panel of Sport and Exercise Medicine, Neurology and Health specialists, the guidelines have a clear message on how to handle a suspected concussion in school aged-children and above, including the dangers of returning to play too soon. Concussion can occur during any physical activity and these simple guidelines will help those working in education to follow the four principles of concussion management:
RECOGNISE – REMOVE – RECOVER – RETURN
Dr Mike England, Fellow of the FSEM, Community Rugby Medical Director of the Rugby Football Union and Facilitator of the guidelines comments: “This has been a ground breaking initiative, with sport, education and health coming together to address a very important issue. We hope teachers will find these guidelines useful, as it is imperative that those working in the education sector know how to recognise concussion and take action. If I had to pick out one key message it would be if in doubt sit them out.”
Dr Roderick Jaques, President of the FSEM comments: “We identified the education sector as a priority area through our call for a national consensus on the prevention, assessment and management of concussion. We are now delighted to see the launch of concussion guidelines to help teachers, school staff, coaches, parents and carers to be aware of the danger signs and how a suspected concussion should be managed in the absence of a trained medical professional.”
The FSEM called for a national best practice consensus on concussion, for all sectors where concussion is encountered, last year and has been working with the UK National Sporting Bodies and Medical Royal Colleges. Easy to follow guidelines, like this, could be developed to deliver UK wide concussion guidelines applicable to anyone handling a suspected concussion.
View the Concussion Guidelines for the Education Sector at www.sportandrecreation.org.uk/concussion-guidelines
Also see related BJSM material:
Consensus statement on concussion in sport: the 4th International Conference on Concussion in Sport held in Zurich, November 2012. Full text free online. (downloaded >100 k times)