HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL 8

52nd legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2016

INTRODUCED BY

Gail Chasey

A JOINT MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THE SECRETARY OF HEALTH TO WORK WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER TO DEVELOP BRAIN INJURY PREVENTION AND RESPONSE PROTOCOLS RELATING TO PUBLIC AND PRIVATE ORGANIZED EXTRACURRICULAR YOUTH ACTIVITIES.

     WHEREAS, the federal agency for healthcare research and quality reports that approximately eight thousand children are treated in emergency rooms each day for sports-related injuries; and

     WHEREAS, according to the national athletic trainers' association, there were one hundred twenty sports-related deaths among young athletes in the years 2008 and 2009; forty-nine sports-related deaths among young athletes in the year 2010; and thirty-nine sports-related deaths among young athletes in the year 2011; and

     WHEREAS, concussion is a common form of injury that young athletes incur, with four hundred thousand concussions occurring in high school athletics in 2008 and 2009 alone; and

     WHEREAS, a concussion is a form of traumatic brain injury whose impact on a young person's developing brain can be especially serious; and

     WHEREAS, more than two hundred forty-eight thousand young athletes visited hospital emergency departments in 2009 for concussions and other traumatic brain injuries; and

     WHEREAS, in recent years, all fifty states have enacted legislation to combat athletics-related concussions; and

     WHEREAS, since 2010, New Mexico has had protocols in statute that address athletics-related concussions and other brain injuries; and

     WHEREAS, although the New Mexico athletic brain injury law is helpful, it relates only to preventing brain injury arising from school-related athletics; and

     WHEREAS, many children and youth in New Mexico participate in extracurricular opportunities that are not school related, but are offered by private leagues and associations; and

     WHEREAS, many states now extend concussion safety protocol requirements to private entities, such as private schools, activity organizations and youth athletic leagues; and

     WHEREAS, in order to protect youth participating in all types of extracurricular activity in all contexts, state law should be updated to cover public and private organized extracurricular youth activities;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the department of health be requested to collaborate with the university of New Mexico health sciences center to undertake a study to identify those protocols for brain injury prevention and treatment that represent best practices to prevent and treat brain injuries sustained in all public and private organized extracurricular activities among youth; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the secretary of health be requested to report the findings of this brain injury protocols study to the legislative health and human services committee by November 1, 2016; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the governor, the secretary of health, the chancellor for health sciences at the university of New Mexico and the chair and vice chair of the legislative health and human services committee.

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