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Youth Sports Concussion Safety Center

NCAA-Department of Defense Mind Matters Educational Challenge

 

Mind Matters Challenge logo

 

On July 15, 2015, the NCAA and Department of Defense (DOD) announced the selection of MomsTeam Youth Sports Safety Instituteas a recipient of a Mind Matters Challenge Educational grant for our application, Creating a Safe Concussion Reporting Environment: A Multi-Media Approach.

joint NCAA-DOD initiative launched in November 2014, the Mind Matters Challenge focuses on two important areas related to concussion: Changing Attitudes about Concussions in Young and Emerging Adults (a research challenge); and Educational Programs Targeting Young and Emerging Adults (an educational programs challenge).

The Institute was one of just six winners (of a possible ten) in Phase One of the Educational Programs Challenge, for which it was awarded a $25,000 cash prize for its proposal to create a multi-media concussion education intervention designed to create an environment in which student-athletes are not penalized, ostracized, or criticized for honestly reporting their own concussion symptoms as well as those of teammates but are actually encouraged to do so.

In Phase Two, which will began in August 2015, the Institute will be awarded an additional $75,000 to work with the NCAA and DOD to actually design a prototype educational program to increase understanding of the critical importance of honest and early self-reporting by student-athletes of concussion symptoms in the diagnosis and management of concussions.

We are truly honored to have been selected to participate in this prestigious program by a stellar panel of judges, including, among others, Jim Whitehead, Executive Vice President of the American College of Sports Medicine, and Kelly Sarmiento of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Heads Up Program.  (Kelly has since agreed to join the Institute's Board of Advisors as part of its Head Injury Working Group)

Six Pillars of Concussion Risk Management

Head injuries in football, as in other contact and collision sports, cannot be completely eliminated, but there ARE steps that can be taken to minimize risk.

MomsTEAM's high school football concussion documentary, The Smartest Team,TM  focuses on what we call The Six PillarsTM of concussion risk management (all of which, it should be emphasized,
are backed by peer-reviewed evidence and/or the consensus of experts):

Pillar One: Comprehensive concussion education

Pillar Two: Protection (Minimizing Risk)

Pillar Three: Early Identification/Immediate Removal from Play

PillarFour: Conservative Treatment (Physical/Cognitive Rest)

Pillar Five: Cautious Return to Play

Pillar Six: Retirement

(Read more)

Concussion center logo Welcome to the MomsTeam concussion safety center! We first began providing comprehensive concussion safety information to youth sports parents, coaches and athletic trainers in 2000.  Since the beginning we have been considered the "pioneer" in concussion safety education.

Sixteen years later, not only sports parents but coaches, athletic trainers, and medical professionals around the world turn to us for concussion information, but the MomsTeam Concussion Safety Center has grown to be the largest, most comprehensive library of concussion safety information on the Internet.  Our team of sports concussion experts, editors, writers, researchers, and videographers are constantly adding to and updating a content catalog of more than four hundred articles and videos to reflect the enormous advances that have occurred in the 2000's in concussion identification, evaluation, and management. 


 The Smartest Team Documentary

The Smartest Team documentary DVD cover

I finally had the opportunity to watch The Smartest Team  and thought it was terrific. I want to commend you and your team on a job well done.  It is informative, insightful and important information for anyone in youth and high school sports to watch."  ~~ Scott Hallenbeck, Executive Director, USA Football 


Here you will find articles about information on the latest research about the long-term effects of concussion on an athlete's cognitive function, articles on whether the new state concussion safety laws are increasing concussion safety, advice on the academic accomodations concussed student-athletes often need when they return to the classroom, and about the latest in concussion research.

MomsTeam Health and Safety editors and writers, along with our experts, including Rosemarie Scolaro Moser, Ph.D., one of the leading sports concussion neuropsychologists in the country and Director of the Sports Concussion Center of New Jersey, continue to provide advice, support, articles, videos and blogs on the latest in concussion management and the dangers of traumatic brain injury.

Our mission now, as it was in 2000, is to do everything we can to minimize the short- and long-term risks that concussions, if not properly managed, pose to athlete, and to provide objective and practical concussion information to parents, coaches, and athletic trainers  that reflects the latest consensus of medical experts and advances in research and technology on best concussion safety practices, all in the direct, concise, easy-to-read, practical format that has always been MomsTeam's hallmark. 

Brooke de Lench

Founder and Publisher, MomsTEAM.com

Executive Director, MomsTEAM Institute

For a complete list of Brooke's reviews of concussion books, click here

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