Brain Matters 2024 - Concussion Management of Students

Mild traumatic brain injury, or concussion, can be a significant disruption to the lives of students. Concussions impact our thinking, sleeping, emotions, and how we feel physically. Once the immediate neurological concerns of a concussion have been ruled out, however, caring for students is mostly behavioral in nature. We monitor, we observe, and we respond. Simply stated: good concussion management is good behavioral management. As such, schools are the ideal environment to facilitate recovery and return students to their pre-injury levels of performance. This talk will expand upon this idea, draw upon evidence-based methods, and share information from years of experience managing concussions in schools. In addition, we will review New Hampshire’s new return to learn law and discuss what schools can do to be in compliance.

Presented by: Jonathan Lichtenstein, PsyD, MBA, is the Director of Neuropsychological Services at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, where he also oversees the Pediatric Neuropsychology and Sports Neuropsychology Programs. Dr. Lichtenstein is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Pediatrics, and The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. Much of his clinical work is concussion-focused, consulting to more than 20 schools in New Hampshire and Vermont on their concussion management programming. Dr. Lichtenstein was the principal investigator and clinical director of Concussion Chalk Talk, a federally-funded demonstration project that introduced return-to-learn practices following concussion to middle and high schools. Dr. Lichtenstein trains advanced post-doctoral fellows in pediatric and sports neuropsychology, introduces clinical psychology graduate students to neuropsychological practices, and mentors undergraduates on clinically-focused research projects. He lectures widely on neuropsychology, addressing the specific applications of neuropsychological principles to concussion management in scholastic and clinical settings.

Cost: $25.00Contact Hours: 1.5