Return to School and Sport Considerations for Concussion Rehabilitation

Too often, a patient is seen after sustaining a concussion and given little to no guidance with regards to how to effectively and safely return to school and sport without excessive symptom provocation. These patients frequently show symptoms well beyond the typical timeline, as they havemissed out on proper rehabilitation opportunities and potentially have developed secondary signs and symptomsrelated to prolonged removal from school and sport, such as psychosocial dysfunction and deconditioning. Rehabilitative clinicians now are involved with these patient's care from diagnosis to full recovery.

This course will briefly address the multi-system involvement, not limited to oculomotor, vestibular, orthopaedic and cardiovascular, in the assessment and rehabilitation of the concussed athlete. The complexity of how each of these systems contributes to impairments and functional limitations will be reviewed. The most up to dateresearch on evidence-based assessment tools will be presented as well as best practice tools for rehabilitation. Thisworkshop will arm the clinician with tips to minimize symptoms in each domain to allow the student to return to schoolrelated activities earlier and minimize days lost from school. Additionally, the clinician will understand the importance of and instruction of a step wise progression of exercises fromeach individual system involved, to functional progressions of exercises, to eventual sport specific and non-contact sport related skills. After completion of this course, the rehabilitative clinician will be an integral part of the medical managementteam for those who have sustained a concussion/TBI.

Target Audience: Physical Therapists, Physical Therapist Assistants, Athletic Trainers

Highlights

• Confidently differentiate between various system contributions to symptoms that may be limiting the student's participation in school related activities
• Learn evidence-based exercise prescriptions and progression that are safe, effective, and efficient