Research & Development In Human Performance & Technology
Project:
#ConcussionTimeForChange
Global Wellness Tracking is dedicated to the support of education and intervention of health, wellness and active living for a lifetime and this requires professionalism and objectivity in today’s world of technologies and social impact.
This project considers all the characters in the play of life from the parent seeking support for the safety of their baby, the teacher and coach who surround the child in development through adolescence, the sporting and social environments that become available in our late teens, the workplace responsibilities for our safety and well-being, the allied health professionals to monitor and guide us through the middle ages and the aged care specialists to keep us from harm and at our best in the twilight of our lives.
A concussion event can occur at any stage, but it takes a responsible solution to ensure it is not repeated to create long-term disease and disability through early identification, procedural capability and education. The purpose of this project is to instill such a process for the broader community.
Goals Roadmap
Education
Resources to educate communities on what concussion is, the signs and symptoms and tools to intervene and act, much like we do with First Aid
Baselining
National roll-out of GPTQA accredited baseline assessment services through schools, sporting clubs and workplaces
Tracking
Integrated GWT tracking tools that provide baseline data, observation tools and tracking tools for people post-concussion to ensure rehabilitation
Habitual Change
Consistency in messaging and service availability through a network of allied health and commercial partners to create habitual change in the community
Posters and Resources
Global Wellness Tracking have created numerous resources to allow the community to display and communicate the signs and symptoms of concussion on the theme of “Look out for a mate”.
By having consistent messaging around venues such as schools, sporting clubs and workplaces there is a constant observation amongst friends and families.
The Future
By committing to an end-to-end valid solution that incorporates existing best practice and innovative verified technologies that are applied with both purpose and reliability allows us to make immediate impact on the current population while simultaneously collecting essential data to future-proof our communities.
The simplicity and consistency of Global Wellness Tracking’s proposal ensures a service that is as applicable to a primary school child as to a resident in aged care and has scalability to cover sports players at all ages including those deemed to be likely impacted in masters participation.
A process of assessing, educating and tracking concussion is not a diagnosis of its long-term impact on life nor a solution to stop concussion or reverse its affects. It is a process to significantly expose risk of repeat concussion, prevent repeat concussion through due diligence and process and objectify a currently subjective system.
The longitudinal information can provide future innovation in sports clothing, rule changes, environmental and social interpretation of concussion sufferers and undoubtably save lives through persistence in reducing the repetition of known knocks.
Evidence is highlighting that many more children are subjected to concussion related injuries every weekend in community sport than first assumed and this can be symptomatic to simple characteristics such as being disruptive in class on the Monday following a sporting weekend. Additionally, it is not rare for an athlete under 16 to have had 3 or more concussion events in sport.
The known known is that concussion occurs regularly and when repeated causes significant long-term disabilities in later life.
Time for change.