DENVER — Colorado lawmakers are considering a bill that could change how coaches treat youth athletes with a possible concussion.
The Mental Health Training in Concussion Education Bill, or SB26-60, would require youth sports coaches to take a mental health training course every other year. Coaches would then be required to inform the parents of a youth athlete who has sustained a possible concussion that they should seek a medical evaluation.
A study from the Journal of American Medical Association published in 2022 found that children and youths who had sustained a concussion had a 40% increased risk of developing a mental health issue, such as psychiatric hospitalizations, self-harm, health care visits, and death by suicide.
The family of Alyssa Petersen, an Arvada athlete who took her life at 13 years old, learned about the link between concussions and mental health too late.
Denver7’s Jessica Porter interviewed members of Alyssa’s family at the Capitol. Watch the interview here.
“If this was something that I was aware of back then, I would have been able to help Alyssa in ways that I just didn’t know how to help her,” Alyssa’s mother Stella Deslongchamp, said.
Alyssa was a soccer player and ski racer who was diagnosed with a concussion at 11 years old after hitting her head on a gate during a ski race. Now her mother believes other incidents should have been looked at more closely.
“She suffered a lot of undiagnosed concussions. She died in 2019, and there wasn’t a lot of awareness at the time for concussions, and so looking back at her life, that’s when I looked at some of her falls,” Deslongchamp said.
Alyssa’s family supports SB26-060 and believes it gives coaches another tool to protect children.
“I feel like a lot of coaches and students just try and push through because they’re like, ‘I want to play and I want to go back in,’” said Alyssa’s sister Emily Petersen. “I think that more people need to be educated on the effects, that if you are like her (Alyssa) and you do have a concussion, what could happen from it.”
SB26-060 passed the Colorado Senate. The legislation was scheduled to be heard by the Health and Human Services committee on Wednesday afternoon, but was delayed.
Denver7 will be sure to update this story on how the committee voted.
