CANCELED - MSPA Cape & Islands Presents: Concussion for School-Based Professionals and Consultants

This workshop will provide school-based professionals and consultants with information to assist with the assessment, management and educational programming for students with concussion. In addition, a peer mediated approach to increasing concussion safety will be reviewed. The first component of this workshop will consist of an overview of concussion including its definition/diagnostic criteria, symptoms, pathophysiology, and course. Typical outcomes following concussion and more protracted outcomes (e.g. post-concussion syndrome) will be discussed and elaborated upon through an illustrative case example. The second component will review a collaborative approach to assisting students with returning to academics and physical activities. In particular, temporary academic provisions, accommodations and programming for students with a typical recovery course and those with more protracted courses (e.g. postconcussion syndrome) will be discussed. The final component of this workshop will begin with discussing the culture associated with sports-related concussion including barriers to concussion reporting and will conclude with reviewing a peer-mediated approach to increase concussion safety. 

Dr.William Ernst is the founding Executive Director of the Center for Concussion Education and Research at Chestnut Hill College (CHC), Philadelphia, PA where he also is an Associate Professor in the Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology. At CHC, he serves on the Disability Services Committee and led a team that developed a return to learn protocol following concussion. In addition, he led a team that submitted a successful proposal to develop a peer concussion education program that resulted in an award from the NCAA-DoD Mind Matters Educational Programs Challenge and funding to develop the program. Upon completion of the program, a joint NCAA-DoD review panel selected the program for further study and funded a multi-site (10 colleges/universities), randomized, controlled trial of the program, with Ernst serving as a co-principal investigator. Dr. Ernst also developed and implemented a concussion screening and management program for a township youth athletics recreation program where he coached youth basketball and soccer. In addition to research pertaining to concussion, Dr. Ernst has published in peer reviewed journals and presented at state and national conferences in the areas of interprofessional collaboration between clinical neuropsychologists and school personnel, misconceptions of TBI and performance validity testing.

Prior professional experience includes working as a Staff Neuropsychologist at Moss Rehabilitation Hospital where Dr. Ernst evaluated and treated patients with TBI and other neurological conditions. In addition, he developed a university affiliated school-based neuropsychological assessment clinic while an Assistant Professor at James Madison University that focused on evaluating children with a wide range of neurological conditions including TBI. During the past 10 years, Dr. Ernst has been the Director of Neuropsychological Evaluation and Consultation Services, LLC located in Freehold, NJ where he evaluates children and adults with ADHD, learning disabilities and various neurological conditions including concussion/TBI.

Dr. Ernst earned a Doctor of Psychology degree in Combined Clinical, School and Counseling Psychology from James Madison University and completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Clinical Neuropsychology at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Cooper Hospital, Camden, NJ.