Concussion Management
Don’t let your concussion hold you back from life. Our team of concussion experts can help you get on the road to recovery.
Concussion Management In Metro Vancouver/Greater Vancouver & The Fraser Valley
Suffering from a concussion can be debilitating. Our occupational therapists can help you manage and recover from your concussion so you can get back to learning, working, and playing.
What Are Concussions?
Concussions are a type of traumatic brain injury where a bump or jolt to the head or brain results in chemical, functional, and metabolic changes to the brain. Since the brain is responsible for our senses, our ability to interact with the world, and our daily functioning, there is great variance in how someone with a concussion presents. These conditions can change our ability to socialize, work, or engage in pre-condition activities.
A concussion is typically not revealed in standard brain scans like MRI and CT because these scans are designed to identify structural damage and generally cannot detect the injury caused by mTBI.
Sometimes concussion symptoms can resolve partially over time. There is a good chance that if symptoms do not resolve, proper treatment may be required in order to fully resolve post-concussion symptoms.
Concussion Management Overview
The Infinity Health Team can assist with your concussion or traumatic brain injury recovery. Your recovery process will include:
- A comprehensive assessment will be completed to address your individual goals, pre-injury functioning, and current tolerances.
- Once this comprehensive assessment is completed, a clinical profile is generated to determine treatment goals, identify barriers/strengths, and bridge the gaps between your current tolerances and your return to function goals.
- With the use of this clinical profile your rehabilitation team will take a holistic, evidence-based, and functional approaches to build up functional tolerances and functional capacities.
- Creating a graded return to function and activity planning program which balances function, rest, and symptom management to get you back to your pre-condition functioning
- Providing education to promote recovery
- Creating an aerobic program
- Developing symptom management strategies
- Creating work or task simulations
- Training your attention, memory, vestibular, visual, executive functioning skills in isolation and within functional tasks
- Assist with the return to work planning and collaborating with the interdisciplinary, medical, and/or return to work team
Additional Concussion Information
How do I minimize the risk for a concussion?
- Always wear your seatbelt
- Wear a helmet when engaging in sports
- Be aware of your surroundings to reduce the risk of falling
- Get enough sleep, stay alert, reduce texting while driving, and reduce risk-taking behaviours while driving.
How do I recognize a concussion?:
- Often occurs with acceleration or impact to the head
- Impacting the following four areas: your cognitive capacities (thinking, focus, memory, reaction speed, physical capacities (neck pain, capacity for tolerating activities, headache), emotional (low mood, anxiety, and irritability), sleep disturbance
What to do if I might have a concussion?
- Determine if there is another physical damage (brain bleeding or damage to the skull)
- Get a diagnosis from your family doctor
- If you are still dealing with symptoms after 30 days, then it is a good time to schedule an appointment with a facility offering active treatment methods.
- If a diagnosis is confirmed get a referral to attend a comprehensive concussion management program (occupational therapy, physiotherapy, kinesiology, vestibular therapy, vision therapy as determined by assessments).
We serve Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, including Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Mission, West Vancouver, North Vancouver, Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster, Richmond, Delta, Surrey, Langley, Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows, Port Moody, and Coquitlam, and more.
Our functional approach is holistic and considers your individual needs, please contact info@infinityhealth.ca for more details on how we can assist with your concussion recovery to help you get back to what matters to you.
