Why the Concussion Professionals Association?

For the Concussion Patient

My concussion story

In 2003 I had two “mild” concussions within 4 months of each other and suffered many confusing and disabling symptom. Over the next 12 years I was rear ended two more times and struck by a van as a pedestrian. Throughout that time and despite many visits to traditional and alternative health care professionals and tens of thousands of dollars spent, I had very little recovery.

Finally through my own research and study I began to discover the new understanding and treatment methods that were evolving around concussion. Many of those I was able to implement myself, while others required finding practitioners with specialized concussion treatment training. Even as a healthcare provider myself, it took me over 13 years to find my path to healing through multi-disciplinary concussion treatment.

Current Concussion Treatment

The fact is that many doctors are not aware of concussion treatment research and methods. Even those who are and use them, may not be aware of other methods outside their chosen discipline. Patients who are trying to find their own solutions tend to flit from one treatment modality to the next. I saw it in myself and have seen it in patients I have worked with in my clinic. I call this shinny object syndrome.

There may be a little benefit from each treatment method, but the patient gives up and moves on to some other modality. There is no one guiding an individualized multi-disciplinary concussion treatment plan needed to really heal. Wouldn’t it be nice to find people who could truly helped in one central location? Where both patients and healthcare providers could find the resources needed to fit each unique concussion situation they were faced with. This is why I created the Concussion Professionals Association.

The outdated “Rest and Return” Concussion Protocol

The Concussion Professionals association was founded to help people who have been concussed recover, not cope. While healing post-concussion syndrome can be a long path physically and emotionally, the greatest obstacle is at the very beginning of that path. That obstacle is overcoming the enduring mTBI treatment protocol of rest and return. The idea that concussion symptoms will simply go away is simply not always true. You know this.

The truth is that up to 63% of mTBI patients have ongoing symptoms for months post injury.¹ For others symptoms may be indefinite. Rest and return does not work for these people. I believe that if concussion sufferers found proper care earlier, these numbers would be much smaller. The potential to improve the lives of concussion patients through a wholistic, multi-disciplinary concussion treatment model is smothered by this obsolete though pervasive paradigm.

Accessing Effective Concussion Treatment

Concussion Professionals seeks to change the concussion treatment paradigm one community at a time. We bring together concussion specialists to refer and collaborate. Moreover, we use multiple strategies to leverage the influence of individual practices and our own platform to educate and connect patients to the the care they need.

Each of you is unique. Even those with the same symptoms may have them for different reasons. It is my hope that this site will open the way to the many paths of concussion treatment currently available and connect you to health care professionals who have made it part of their mission to help you.

While the purpose of the site is not to provide medical advice, it’s purpose is to help you find that guidance. That being said, remember that you are unique. Not every form of treatment may be right for you. Most likely you, like me, need a multidisciplinary approach. We cannot guarantee or vouch for specific treatment methods or professionals listed here for your specific condition. We encourage you to do your own due diligence when beginning any treatment. Ask lot of questions. Have someone with you who can listen, remember and talk to you about your care.

For the Professionals that treat Concussion

For current and potential members of the concussion professionals association, this is an opportunity for you to shine. Many of the methods and skills you have worked hard to learn and perfect remain unknown even within the medical community. Even we, in our drive to perfect our own methods may neglect the benefits of a multi-disciplinary concussion treatment approach. It is a lot of work to build and maintain relationships with other providers. The Concussion Professionals association does a lot of that work for you.

Unless you have a concussion clinic, you probably treat a multitude of conditions. Sadly, in terms of search, this dilutes your message. Google and others consider specificity a factor of authority. We can not get you to the top of search engine lists for every condition you treat, but we can be a funnel through which concussion patients find you. If you do specialize in concussion only, you still must compete with the prevailing rest and return model that is found on major medical sites. For each new association member and each new article on this site we advance against this outdated thinking. To learn more see our Membership Benefits page.

Both locally and globally, the concussion professionals association offers an opportunity to connect with health professionals of the same or complementary disciplines for consultation and cross referral. We encourage our members to connect with each other, learn about each others approaches and create multi-disciplinary concussion treatment plans. This is for the benefit of the patient, but also combats the sense of isolation that can sometimes come with being on the frontier of advancing health care.

I thank you for being there and serving the underserved community of mTBI and post-concussion syndrome sufferers. Thank you for allowing us to help you complete your mission. Together, let us change the concussion and post-concussion syndrome treatment paradigm!

1 Maas, Andrew IR, David K. Menon, Geoffrey T. Manley, Mathew Abrams, Cecilia Åkerlund, Nada Andelic, Marcel Aries et al. “Traumatic brain injury: progress and challenges in prevention, clinical care, and research.” The Lancet Neurology (2022).