Island Health raises concussion awareness through impactful demonstration

Island Health’s Olivia Aguiar takes part in a demonstration on the benefits of wearing a helmet at Victoria General Hospital.

Injury prevention and safety professionals with Island Health are raising awareness around concussions and the importance of helmets, marking Safe Kids Week from June 2-8.

“When it comes to kids, the main causes of concussion are falls and then with the slightly older kids (it’s) sports and recreation,” says Olivia Aguiar, Island Health injury prevention and safety promotion lead.

The health professional led a demonstration at Victoria General Hospital by using a simulator to showcase the difference between a crash landing with a helmet on, versus off. The Triax Surface Impacting Testing System measures the force of the impact.

In the first test, a helmet was fastened to a rounded weight on a tripod and then dropped with the push of a button, smashing onto a pad on the hospital floor. The helmet cracked and the impact reader peaked at 148. In the second experiment, without a helmet fastened to the weight, the level peaked 12 points higher at 160.

“A helmet, for example, won’t prevent a concussion but it will reduce the risk of you experiencing a more severe brain injury,” says Aguiar.

She says a concussion is defined as a brain injury that happens when a person suffers a blow to the head, neck or body.

“Signs are things that you can see. So this might be someone looking a bit unbalanced, just not behaving like themselves. Whereas symptoms are something someone feels. So they might express to you, ‘Oh, I’m feeling a headache or feel like I’m in a bit of a fog.’ Maybe they’re having difficulty sleeping. With kids, we often see that it tends to be behavioural issues, so maybe they’re more emotional or irritable than usual,” says Aguiar.

A trauma services consultant for injury and violence prevention also joined the informational session, which was free to the public to engage in. Amelia Smit is reminding parents and guardians to ensure their child wears a helmet specific to their sport, and one that fits well.

“You want the helmet to stay in place if you were to sustain an impact to the head; so the better fitting the helmet is, the better the chance it will stay in place and it’ll absorb that impact,” says Smit. “Different helmets are designed to absorb impact differently. So a bicycle helmet is designed to absorb one singly large impact, whereas sport helmets are often designed to absorb multiple small impacts.”

The consultant says it’s important people follow the “2-V-1” rule. It means being able to place two fingers between the brim of the helmet and your eyebrow, having a V-shape around the ear with the strap, and the ability to put just one finger between the chin and strap.

Parents and grandparents at an Esquimalt playground agree staying nearby your child is a good idea, in the event of a fall.

“You kind of give them as much leeway as you think it’s safe, but it’s always a tough balance between injury versus experience,” says father of two, Rory Lambert.

The Sidney-based dad says he had a recent scare with his oldest son, and remembers advice from his wife who’s an instructor at UVic with a specialty in concussions as well.

“He took a little bit of a step. Bam, his head hit the the ground. My wife is always teaching me, you know, try and watch for the point of injury. If you can’t get there in time, you want to know what happened so you can either tell a professional or look at it yourself,” says Lambert.

Island Health experts say a key part of concussions is recognizing one early – so when in doubt, take a child to get assessed.

“The longer you wait to address those symptoms, it’s actually going to delay the recovery and could have potential long-term consequences,” says Aguiar. “Every concussion is unique.”