Litigation

NFL to provide neurological services to retired players suffering from brain damage

By Michael Kaplen

In what seems to be a dramatic and positive shift in thinking about traumatic brain injuries, the National Football League and NFL Alumni Association yesterday announced a new neurological care program for retired players.

The program makes available neurological specialists at five leading medical centers across the country to evaluate and treat possible neurological conditions. Each center will have available to retired NFL players a team of specialists, led by a neurologist who will serve as a program director.

Each of the centers that were chosen has an excellent reputation in the treatment of neurological disorders, including traumatic brain injuries.  Instead of pushing traumatic brain damage under the rug and ignoring the devastating life long consequences of this invisible injury, I am hopeful that players suffering from a traumatic brain injury will finally obtain the treatment they deserve.

The five participating medical centers are: Morehouse School of Medicine (Atlanta), Mount Sinai (New York), Doctors of USC (Los Angeles), University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine (San Francisco) and Washington University School of Medicine/Barnes-Jewish Hospital (St. Louis).

Previously,  the NFL and the NFL Alumni Association announced at the Super Bowl a partnership with the Morehouse School of Medicine to address mental-health issues affecting retired NFL players and their families. The partnership plans a series of mental health conferences for NFL alumni and their families and to provide comprehensive health-care information for players in their post-NFL careers.

Now, the NFL and its partnership with the Alumni Association needs to take the next step and acknowledge the link between traumatic brain injury and mental health issues including depression and  make mental health services available to these players as well.

Full post as published by Brain Injury News and Information on March 25, 2010 (boomark / email).