GMIT is pleased to announce details of an upcoming 'Heads Up!' Sports Concussion Conference taking place on Tuesday, March 29 at 6.45pm at the Galway campus (Room 994 ).
This free conference is for sports coaches, players, parents, PE teachers and anyone interested in sport who wishes to learn more about concussion injuries, their prevalence and management measures.
The conference will be the first in a series of events associated with the EU Erasmus+ funded project "Get your head in the game – Sport Concussion Awareness and Training (SCAT )”. The project is led by GMIT in partnership with a consortium comprised of Letterkenny Institute of Technology (LYIT ), the International Concussion and Head Injury Research Foundation (ICHIRF, UK ), Oxford Brookes University (UK ), the Southern Denmark University (Denmark ), and La Trobe University (Australia ).
The group launched the SCAT project in December 2019 with the aim of gaining an in-depth understanding of the definition and implications of concussion in amateur sport settings across Europe.
They developed an innovative training guide and an online course aimed at equipping Vocational Education and Training (VET ) educators with the knowledge and materials required to develop concussion-specific training. The Training Guide and Online Course are informed by findings from a Systematic Literature Review (an assessment of current concussion identification and diagnosis methods in sports settings ) conducted as part of this project.
The consortium’s findings will be presented during this 'Heads Up!' Conference and will provide attendees with information on what a concussion is, prevalence across sports, current identification and management measures as well as an opportunity to ask questions to a panel of experts.
"Sports concussion has been in the media quite a lot recently, and there is a considerable amount of misinformation and an understandable level of fear as a result. Our SCAT Erasmus+ project brings together a network of experts in the field from across Europe and Australia and aims to help educate individuals regarding concussions in sport to enhance their awareness of the prevalence and how to manage concussions safely," said Dr Lisa Ryan, Head of the Sport, Exercise and Nutrition department, GMIT.
"We are excited to host this international conference in Galway as an in-person free event. Concussion is an injury that may occur in all sports. This ‘Heads Up!’ conference is the ideal opportunity for coaches, players, parents, PE teachers (primary or secondary ) or those who are interested in sport to gain up-to-date information on concussion in sport and to ask questions to panelists.
"This will be a highly engaging event where attendees will have the opportunity to develop their knowledge and network with leading experts in concussion research from the Irish Concussion Research Centre (ICRC ) at GMIT, and Professor John Fairclough from the Progressive Rugby non-profit organisation in the UK", added Dr Ryan. Places are limited to register for the conference please visit Eventbrite link: https://tinyurl.com/4by9s8mc.
