HJBR Jan/Feb 2025

34 JAN / FEB 2025  I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE   Healthcare Briefs too high. Public school parents, whose children play under the LHSAA’s rules, deserve access to tis critical health data to protect their children from long-term damage. It’s time for the state to demand public oversight of high school athletics, ensuring that transparency is prioritized over pri- vacy for the sake of young athletes’ safety. Louisiana Healthcare Connections Awards $150K in Grant Funding Louisiana Healthcare Connections has announced the award of $150,000 in grant fund- ing to five community organizations supporting a wide variety of health initiatives within Louisiana communities throughout the state. Community Health Grants from Louisiana Healthcare Connections fund nonprofits, health- care providers, and schools addressing the health plan’s strategic priorities of social determinants of health, increasing access to preventive care, pro- moting health equity, and improving health out- comes in Louisiana. Chosen from more than 150 applications, these grants represent major investments into the health of communities across Louisiana. The grant recipients include: • Second Harvest Food Bank will expand the Makin’ Groceries Mobile Market in the Acadiana and Southwest Louisiana regions, to provide 10,000 people with access to healthy and affordable food, serve as a resource to increase food literacy, and con- duct SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assis- tance Program) outreach with 500 people across nine parishes. • Rebuilding Together New Orleans will expand their Safe at Home program to assist low-income veteran, elderly, and disabled homeowners with critical home repairs for safety and access within the Greater New Orleans and Houma- Thibodaux regions. • Power Pump Girls combats period poverty and will add distribution channels to pro- vide more period products to be distrib- uted by schools, shelters, and non-profit agencies throughout the Greater Baton Rouge region. • HGM Community Development Private Control, Public Risk: LHSAAWithholds Concussion and Brain Injury Data on High School Football Players in Louisiana The Louisiana High School Athletic Associa- tion (LHSAA), which oversees high school sports across the state, is facing growing scrutiny after refusing to disclose concussion and brain injury statistics for public school football players. This lack of transparency has raised concerns about the safety of a sport known to cause both short- term and long-term brain damage. Despite over- seeing sports for public schools, the LHSAA is a private organization with no public oversight, leaving critical data on player health hidden from view. Private Organization, Public Schools The LHSAA governs athletics for more than 80% of Louisiana’s public high schools, making deci- sions that directly affect thousands of student- athletes. Despite its critical role, the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that the LHSAA is a private entity — not subject to public records laws. This means the LHSAA can legally refuse to provide the public with important data, including concussion rates and the impact of mild traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) on players. In football, concussions are just the tip of the iceberg. Sub-concussive hits — blows to the head that do not cause immediate symptoms — are increasingly recognized as contributing to long- term brain damage, including chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a neurodegenerative dis- ease that leads to memory loss, depression, and dementia. The LHSAA’s refusal to release con- cussion and TBI data on public school athletes shields it from accountability at a time when the dangers of football to brain health are becoming more widely understood. A Dangerous Game with No Accountability Football is a high-risk sport for brain injuries, with growing evidence linking repeated head trauma to both short-term impairments and long-term neurodegenerative diseases. Concus- sions have immediate effects, such as headaches, dizziness, and confusion, but the repeated sub- concussive hits that occur in practices and games may have even more devastating consequences. Recent studies have found that these repeated impacts, even when they do not cause immedi- ate symptoms, contribute to lasting damage to white matter in the brain — the network of fibers that connect different brain regions and are cru- cial for communication between neurons. One recent study on high school football play- ers revealed white matter changes after just one season of play, even in athletes who did not suf- fer diagnosed concussions. This underscores the danger not just of singular concussive blows, but of repetitive, sub-concussive hits that go undetected but can still lead to significant brain changes over time. Public Health Crisis Hidden Behind Closed Doors While brain injuries and neurodegenerative dis- eases like CTE have been documented exten- sively in professional athletes, research is now showing that the risk begins much earlier — in high school football players. Without access to data on how many Louisiana students have suf- fered concussions or sub-concussive brain inju- ries, families and educators cannot fully grasp the scope of the problem. The LHSAA, by refusing to disclose these sta- tistics, is effectively participating in a cover-up of a growing public health issue. In refusing to release data, the association hides the poten- tial harm being done to Louisiana’s student-ath- letes, many of whom go on to experience linger- ing brain damage from repeated head trauma. Without oversight, the LHSAA can continue operating without accountability, shielding itself from the responsibility of addressing this grow- ing health crisis. The Cost of Secrecy: Hidden Health Data in Public School Athletics The LHSAA’s refusal to share this vital health information is not just about player safety—it’s about transparency and accountability. Football is played in public schools with public funding, but the private organization overseeing these games operates in secret. By hiding concussions data, the LHSAA denies parents, players, and educa- tors the chance to address a growing health con- cern affecting Louisiana’s youth. In Louisiana, the sport of football is as much a part of the state’s culture as its food and music. But as the LHSAA withholds data on brain inju- ries, it becomes clear that the cost of secrecy is