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Abstract
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Background
Providing a health service in a rural area comes with its challenges: limited medical resources, reliance on ambulance and rescue helicopter services and, especially in New Zealand, a stoic rugby culture with a fear of missing the next big game! Working in New Zealand's Tasman region in the beautiful but remote Golden Bay has had its fair share of curve balls for our sports physiotherapy practice. It was one of those challenges that led to the development of the Concussion Conversations programme, aiming to better understand what information is wanted, needed and how it should be delivered to improve community understanding of sport-related concussion (SRC) and its acute management.
Context
With the increasing awareness of concussion in contact sports, New Zealand sports policy makers have produced some good support information in the form of documents, handouts and videos, all freely available to the public.1-6 Yet, in rural areas, very few people are aware of these resources and even fewer access them.
The 'Blue Card' initiative was first trialled in New Zealand provincial rugby in 2014 and allows an appropriately trained referee to remove a player with a suspected SRC from the field of play for the duration of the game. In New Zealand, Rugby Union players are then stood down from play until symptom-free (minimum of 21 days for seniors), required to complete a return-to-play process and pass a medical sign-off prior to returning to the game. Having a supportive, knowledgeable medical and community network is paramount to the successful implementation of this programme.
The 2023 Tasman senior rugby season saw 29 players removed from play with 'blue cards' being issued, up from 24 in 2018 when this concussion management initiative was implemented. This increase in numbers is likely partly due to the improved referee awareness created by the Tasman Rugby Union, but it does not capture non-carded, missed or late-onset concussions. Given that just under half of the rugby players in rural communities live more than 30 min away from the local hospital, the importance of a supportive and well-educated community/whanau (family) cannot be undervalued...
Language: en |