Students, parents, teachers, coaches and others are all being invited to a free presentation on concussions tonight from a leading expert in the field.

Dr. Charles Tator’s presentation is called ‘Let’s Talk About Concussions.’

He says awareness has really grown since Rowan’s Law was first introduced and took effect in Ontario.

The law was created after the 2013 death of 17-year-old Rowan Stringer, a high school rugby player.

It’s believed she experienced three concussions over six days while playing rugby.

Dr. Tator says the new regulations make it important for everyone to take steps to be knowledgeable about concussions.

“That means parents should learn what to look for in their kid who’s complaining of headaches, or dizziness, or shows up unable to do their school work properly,” he says.

Dr. Tator says previously the after-effects of concussion went unrecognized and that made it difficult to re-integrate the student back into class.

He also says being informed isn’t the only regulation with Rowan’s Law.

“Will make it necessary for kids who are competing on school teams to follow a code of conduct, and that code of conduct will have to be developed for virtually every sport,” Dr. Tator says. “The obvious things like ‘thou shalt not smack someone over the head with your hockey stick’ but other things like ‘don’t use your elbows and shoulders to knock into somebody’s head when doing a body check in hockey’ or different activities will have different codes of conduct.”

Several groups, including the Health Unit and Connecting Community Partners in Injury Prevention, are hosting tonight’s free presentation.

Dr. Tator will be meeting with local doctors and nurses in sports and emergency medicine ahead of tonight’s event, which starts at 6:30 pm at St. Joseph-Scollard Hall.

Dr. Charles Tator is a Canadian physician, professor, renowned neurosurgeon, and a leading concussion expert.

He is the Director of the Canadian Concussion Centre at Toronto Western Hospital and a Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Toronto.

(Photo courtesy the Let’s Talk About Concussions event page on Facebook) 

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