Researcher Profile - Jhaelyn Gomme

Research Project Title: Experiences With Sport-Related Concussions In Peterborough County

Supervisor: Liana Brown (Trent University)

Written by: Jhaelyn Gomme

Jhaelyn’s Concussion Story and Research Experience

In November 2017, I sustained a concussion while doing an activity I loved, dancing. Ever since that day, my life has changed forever, and my passion has been concussion research, advocacy, treatment, and education. When I sustained my concussion, my family doctor told me I would recover in two weeks and to sit in a dark room with nothing to do. My concussion then took six years to recover. During this time, I had various symptoms, such as left-side numbness that made it challenging to walk and perform tasks, prolonged memory and reading challenges, autonomic nervous system dysregulation, headaches, nausea, and several others. During the six years I attended many clinicians, of whom most did not know why I was not recovering and often blamed it on my mental health. Eventually, I found a clinic in Guelph called Shift Concussion that discovered I had a visual shift and provided me with the proper treatment. I am now on the other side of my concussion, with only minimal symptoms typically based on external factors. This experience has driven me to want to research, treat, and promote concussions because I never want anyone to go through what I experienced again. Therefore, during the winter semester of my fourth year of university, I pursued a research project on concussion experiences in Peterborough County under the supervision of Professor Liana Brown. 

Professor Brown suggested I work with her to build off the previous research she carried out in 2020, which determined that there are inconsistencies in the treatment of concussions in Peterborough County. The study aimed to assess changes in concussion management in Peterborough County from 2020 to 2023 and determine if these inconsistencies still existed. This study was conducted in partnership with the Headsup Concussion Advocacy Network (HeadsupCAN) to highlight the trends in concussion experiences in Peterborough County for awareness and education purposes. 

The study aimed to survey athletes or parents of athletes who sustained a concussion since September 1st, 2020. Participants were recruited for this study in several ways, including posters, social media posts, and emails to sports organizations, all of which included access to the survey. The survey consisted of approximately 66 questions inquiring about the management of the concussion, the sports played when concussions were sustained, the rate at which they returned to play and school, and their concussion education before the injury. Next, a descriptive analysis was performed on the responses to the survey, in which the percentage of participants who endorsed a specific answer for each question was calculated.

From this study, we determined that there were still inconsistencies amongst concussion treatment, management, and education in Peterborough County. For the specifics of these results, please read the PDF of the study below.

Studying concussions in Peterborough County was challenging and enlightening in several ways. First, performing research post-pandemic on athletes was challenging. Many sports organizations shut down over the pandemic and were not running at full capacity yet. Therefore, our participant pool may have been smaller than expected because not as many athletes were participating in sports. Additionally, we often received responses from sports organizations stating that there had been no concussions within their organization since September 1st, 2020. However, this is a challenge when researching all concussions because often concussions go unreported or undiagnosed. Therefore limiting the number of participants in concussion research but also leading to worse injuries for athletes. Furthermore, it was interesting to conduct this study in Peterborough County because they had a wide variety of sports leagues to survey and it is a smaller city. Allowing the results to demonstrate the impact concussions have on the community even with a smaller sample size. However, I think it would be interesting to survey a larger city, such as Toronto, to determine how concussions are managed there. Additionally, I believe it could be interesting to research the differences in concussion experiences between many different cities. Lastly, I found this study to be very enlightening about the importance of proper concussion management and education, as they can truly impact an individual's life forever. 

After my experience with concussions, it is heartwarming to see how far concussion management has come. Specifically, the majority of individuals in Peterborough County are receiving proper concussion management. However, it is highly alarming that the inconsistencies in care have not changed over the last few years and that the current concussion knowledge has not been integrated into the concussion management in Peterborough. Additionally, it is also concerning that although a large portion of individuals are receiving proper concussion management, there are still a large number of individuals who are not. Overall, this fuels my passion to keep advocating and researching concussions to hopefully improve concussion management all over the world and ensure no one goes through what I went through.

Sincerely,

Jhaelyn Gomme

Trent University Student