At the annual Longevity Project event hosted by Summit Daily News on Tuesday, March 18, almost every hand in the audience at the Silverthorne Pavilion went up when asked if they or someone they know have been affected by a traumatic brain injury.

The question not only painted a clear image of how many people are affected by brain injuries, but it also helped to open up a larger discussion on the injury itself.

The event acted as the finale of the Longevity Project series, which works to educate readers on what it takes to live a long, fulfilling life in the High Country. While last year’s series focused on substance use, this year’s topic centered around traumatic brain injuries.

Stephanie Zavilla, the director of sports performance at the Winter Park Competition Center, served as one of the four individuals on a panel at the event Tuesday. Zavilla was joined by Dr. Chad Prusmack, Kathleen Flarity, who has a doctorate in nursing practice, and Dr. Becky Smiley Blackwell. 

The panel discussion began with Prusmack — a board-certified neurosurgeon based in Colorado — breaking down what a traumatic brain injury and how it may differ from a concussion. 

“Traumatic brain injuries are a very large term,” Prusmack said. “It has three subsets: mild, moderate and severe. Concussion is defined as one of those subsets.”

While not every traumatic brain injury may be severe, every concussion is a brain injury and is most often classified in the mild subset. According to Prusmack, a traumatic brain injury is a “traumatically induced, transient disturbance of neurologic function that was incurred by a biomechanical force.” In layman’s terms, a traumatic brain injury is when an individual receives a blow to the head and has any alteration of brain function.

“If you have a concussion, you have a mild TBI,” said Flarity, the executive director at the University of Colorado Marcus Institute for Brain Health. “If your symptoms go away, which 75% to 80% will go away within those three to four weeks, I personally like the term mild TBI especially if you have ongoing symptoms.”

With Zavilla working with many young ski and snowboard athletes at the Winter Park Competition Center she was then asked by moderator Lee Tuchfarber what she sees after an athlete has hit their head.

Zavilla has seen a steady positive shift in how kids and parents react to hitting their head since she started working at the Winter Park Competition Center. At the beginning of her career in Winter Park, Zavilla said it was typical to see parents pushing for their kids to be tough after hitting their heads.

However, Zavilla says that as more research has come out and concussions have been highlighted in the NFL and NHL, parents have grown more concerned about brain injuries.

“What I see a lot of times is athletes and their parents and their coaches are very careful.” Zavilla said.

While parents have gained a more robust understanding of brain injuries, Zavilla says it is a toss-up on how a kid is going to react to being told they have to sit out of a competition or practice because they took a blow to their head.

The panel then shifted the topic of the discussion to education and what can be done to inform more people about the devastating effects of traumatic brain injuries. 

Blackwell argued that it is not so much about educating community members, but rather creating a shift in the culture.

“We think a lot about football with brain injuries, and I think the NFL has been really good about taking this risk seriously,” Blackwell said. “There are organizations that are not always taking the proactive stance that the NFL has taken.”

One of the biggest ways Blackwell works to educate the Summit County community is through CommonSpirit St. Anthony Summit Hospital’s ThinkFirst campaign. The program works to prevent falls within the aging community in Summit County as well as educates community members on the importance of keeping their brain safe. 

As a board-certified pediatrician, Blackwell also pushes for the use of helmets.

“While they are doing the things that they love to do here and adventuring and sporting and becoming really amazing athletes, we are helping mitigate their risk and helping them make good choices by keeping helmets on their heads,” Blackwell said.

Through in-school education programs and primary-care education, Blackwell feels like the High Country has come quite far in terms of the information available on brain injuries. 

Flarity echoed Blackwell’s sentiment by saying that she has started to see a normalization of people taking their brain health seriously.

“(When) I was a kid, you didn’t wear a helmet for anything,” Flarity said. “There’s no such thing as seat belts. We have normalized doing high-risk things, but doing it as safely as possible. I ski and snowboard, skydive and scuba dive, but you know we take those protective mechanisms. It is changing that culture.”

One of the last topics the panel focused on was prevention and what people can do to reduce their risk of injury.

With so many people coming to Summit County every year in order to ski, snowboard, hike or mountain bike, Blackwell further highlighted the importance of staying safe while participating in the often risky activities.

“It all comes with risk,” Blackwell said. “Helmets should be worn when you are doing an activity where you might hit your head. … Slips and falls as well. We all live here and know that it is slippery out there. … Mitigate your risks and make good risk decisions, make good choices.”