
What is Rowan’s Law?
A concussion is defined as a traumatic brain injury that affects brain function. In most cases, effects are temporary and don’t result in prolonged damage, but sometimes, concussions can be quite serious resulting in disability and even death.
Rowan Stringer was a 17-year-old Ontario athlete who suffered two concussions in a one-week period. Although she was experiencing symptoms, she was unaware of how serious they were and she continued to play through them, keeping them from her parents, coach and medical professionals. When she suffered a third concussion during play, it ultimately ended her life.
Rowan’s Law Day occurs on the last Wednesday of September. It is Ontario’s way of remembering Rowan and raising awareness of the dangers of concussions. On this day, teachers, coaches and anyone involved in sports are encouraged to share information about concussion prevention, identifying concussion symptoms, post-concussion syndrome and second impact syndrome.
What Rowan’s Law means for your organization
Rowan’s Law has increased concussion awareness to the point where Canada has become a leader in concussion management and prevention. As a result, there are requirements that went into effect on July 1, 2019, that are mandatory for sports organizations:
- Organizations must ensure that all athletes under 26 years of age, all parents of athletes under the age of 18, and all coaches, team trainers and officials confirm that they have reviewed Ontario’s Concussion Awareness Resources each year.
- Organizations must establish a Concussion Code of Conduct that sets out rules of behaviour that support concussion prevention.
- Organizations must establish a removal-from-sport and return-to-sport protocol to ensure no players are in the game if they may have sustained a concussion.
School boards must also follow requirements when dealing with sports-related activities in accordance with the Ministry of Education’s concussion policy for school boards, school authorities and Provincial and Demonstration schools.
How Uplifter can help
Sport organizations are responsible for the screening, certification and licensing of coaches, and we are very familiar with the obstacles and complexities organizations face in this role. Every sport is different and has a unique set of needs. Uplifter takes this problem on as our own and builds the necessary integrations so that we can act as the home of your data: a place to store and track details about your athletes, parents, coaches and officials year over year. Our software can assist with concussion awareness in three ways.
1. Coach and official licensing
We offer solutions to help screen, certify and license coaches through management systems, external background check providers and national coaching databases. Uplifter also tracks certification records, professional development, concussion awareness, code of conduct, first aid training and more, including:
- Coach and official license application and approval process.
- Tools to configure prerequisites and requirements for being certified.
- An accreditation process made easier by self-management tools for licensees and third-party integrations.
- A live directory of coaches and officials in good standing.
- Automated email alerts when certifications or requirements are close to their expiry date.
- Digital credentials in various formats (PDF, Apple Wallet, Google Wallet) that are updated in real time.
2. Waivers, digital agreements and codes of conduct
Uplifter collects digital agreements during the registration process. In sport, there are many registration scenarios where a parent is registering a child, or a family member is registering several people at once. Uplifter tracks the athlete’s age at signing, making sure the process captures the signature of the right adult or the athlete’s legal guardian before membership is issued. This helps your organization track Concussion Awareness Codes of Conduct and Acknowledgements of Risk from athletes and parents.
3. Integrations with learning management systems
We can integrate with your existing third-party learning management system, so if your concussion awareness solution involves digital education, we can gather and track your athletes’ and parents’ completion of these courses.
Practice concussion awareness
What happened to Rowan Stringer was tragic. Don’t let it happen to another athlete. Do what you can to improve concussion awareness in your sport organization and sport community. Whether you need one or all of these solutions, or just want some best-practice advice, reach out to us for a chat. Having these systems in place gives everyone involved peace of mind.
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