Snow Australia endorses new AIS Concussion Guidelines

The Australian Institute of Sport Youth and Community Sport Guidelines, were recently unveiled to coincide with the return of school sport across the country, as well as the start of pre-season for various football codes and winter sports.

The AIS, the Australian Sports Commission’s (ASC) high performance arm, in a world first, has aligned the Youth and Community Sport Guidelines with advice in both the United Kingdom, through the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and New Zealand’s Accident Compensation Corporation.

“This multi-national approach to the Youth and Community Sport Guidelines provides all Australians with a clear, consistent, and strong message on how to manage concussion in sport,” said AIS Chief Medical Officer Dr David Hughes AM.

“It’s important to manage all instances of concussion with an abundance of caution and make it clear that a conservative management approach is needed for people aged under 19 who have growing brains and are at risk of prolonged recovery times, as well as for community sport where advanced health care support is often not available.”

“The AIS wants everyone involved in sport to remember, when considering an athlete with possible concussion, ‘if in doubt, sit them out’.”

The key updates of Australia’s Youth and Community Sport Guidelines are:

• Extending the mandatory minimum standdown period following an incidence of sport-related concussion to 21 days from the time of concussion until returning to competitive contact sport;
• Expanding the existing advice for children aged 19 and under to be symptom free for 14 days prior to returning to contact training to also apply to all incidences of community sport related concussion; and
• Snow Australia are endorsing the new guidelines and see their being great benefit for consistency across sports and practitioners. 

“We absolutely welcome the new guidelines for Youth & Community Snow Sport. It has historically been really difficult for our clubs, young athletes & parents to navigate the world of concussion, particularly with limited consensus on the diagnosis and management,” said Ben Bond, Snow Australia Performance Health & Talent Manager. 

“These guidelines will provide a clear framework for all stakeholders on best practice in this area and equally assist local practitioners in their management across multiple sports”. 

“We have been working closely with all our pathway clubs in updating their policies to reflect the guidelines, assist them to develop their respective frameworks, and educate their communities accordingly. For some, this will be a rather large change in process, but we see it as a great opportunity to start moving the needle, and creating awareness is the first step in that” Bond said. 

Snow Australia will be holding a Concussion Guideline Update Webinar early next month.

Concussion Guideline Update: Youth & Community Sport 
Wednesday June 5 | 7pm-8pm AEST 
Click here to register

Additional Resources 
AIS Concussion Home Page
AIS Concussion Guidelines for Youth & Community Sport 2024
AIS Concussion and Brain Health Position Statement 2024