BC Rugby – Vancouver, BC – December 13, 2016: BC Rugby’s Monique Charbonneau attended the Governor General’s Conference on Concussions in Sport as a panellist last Tuesday in Ottawa. As a leader of the BC Rugby Player Welfare Committee and lead athletic therapist for BC Rugby and the Meraloma Rugby Club, Charbonneau has done extensive research into concussions and has dedicated her career to improving player welfare and injury prevention.

Alongside Charbonneau, the Conference panellists were comprised of retired professional athletes, professors and even a neurosurgeon. The theme of the day was “We Can Do Better” as the discussions surrounded ways to encourage more youth to play sports while reducing the incidence of concussions and developing high standards for player safety.

Charbonneau presented on the work currently being done at BC Rugby. She explained how therapists are working to reduce the rate of unreported symptoms and injuries by developing strong relationships with players. By gaining the trust of the players they are able to have more open conversations and better help athletes who may feel scared or ashamed to ask for help.

Other takeaways from her presentation and the conference are that it’s important to start educating children at an early age about concussion management and player safety in order to create a culture shift around these topics.

Charbonneau also emphasized the importance of knowledge, urging that individuals become as familiar with the 6 R’s (Recognize, Remove, Refer, Rest, Recover, Return) as they are with common knowledge such as calling 911 for emergencies. BC Rugby uses the software Privit Profile for concussion surveillance to more effectively communicate and track player injuries throughout the process. 

This Conference has been an excellent opportunity to share ideas, identify areas for growth and recognize as a nation the important of player welfare. BC Rugby will be continuing to do its part in improving player safety and concussion management through education and investment in monitoring systems.

This year, BC Rugby’s community has embraced completing World Rugby’s Concussion Management online module with over 700 people completing the module.

About the Governor General’s Conference on Concussions in Sport
This one-day conference’s aim was to bring together federal, provincial and territorial government representatives as well as key stakeholders in the sport, recreation, health and education sectors to develop a national approach for managing, detecting and preventing concussions. The event was presented in partnership with Sport Canada and the Sport Information Resource Centre and was live-streamed on the Governor General of Canada’s website. 

More information about BC Rugby

The British Columbia Rugby Union, commonly known as BC Rugby, is the governing body for Rugby in British Columbia and is a Provincial Union of Rugby Canada, the national governing body. Representing over 7,500 individuals registered through around 60 Member Clubs and Associations across the Province, BC Rugby leads and manages the sport with the aim to grow participation and develop excellence in all games of Rugby and in all facets of the sport.

Web: bcrugby.com

Twitter: twitter.com/bcrugbyunion

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For further information, please contact:

Cassie Xiong
Marketing & Communications Manager
cxiong@bcrugby.com

Tel: +1- 604-737-3070