Jun 8, 2026 · 25 min · 12 segments
Could your elderly patient or loved one be living with a concussion that no one ever diagnosed? Too often, we associate falls in older adults with broken hips or "just getting older," overlooking the…
Natasha WilchHost
So I want you to think about the last person, if you're a clinician, I want you to think about your average concussion client, the last person that walked through your door.
If you're listening to this, maybe it's yourself if you've been on a journey, right? But who do you picture when I talk about the concussion client? Who do you think of? I would say most of us, or many people, tend to instinctively think about athletes, or they might think of people ultimately within the ages of, let's say, 16 to 35 or 40, right? You might think of the recreational person, the workplace injury, um, domestic violence goes into that as well, right? So we might think of that age range.
And in all truth, most of the research around concussion are in individuals between 16 to 30 some odd years old, and most of the research with concussion, which has been identified more and more lately, is actually, it's in athletes, right? And we know that we cannot do a direct comparison of an athlete to the general population, so there is absolutely more research coming out that is showing outcomes of the general population as opposed to just athletes.
We also know now that we necessarily can't look at it as men and women the same.
There's differences in symptoms, like everything, right? So when we think of concussion and we think of, if you think of that person, I'm gonna, I'm just gonna take a wild guess that you probably picture an individual between 16 to 35.
Maybe it's an athlete, maybe it's a mom, maybe it's a dad, may- whatever it is, that might be who you picture.
Traumatic brain injury, TBI, is the leading cause of injury-related death and hospitalization in adults over the age of 65.
This could be the person who slips in the kitchen, right? And I think when we think of our el- now here's the thing.
Really the greatest injury is over 75, okay? Like I think of my, my grandmother is 86Still alive and kicking.
But when we think of our elderly and we think of falls, what i- I know what I think of right-- What do you think of right away? I know what I think of right away.
It sure as fuck isn't a concussion or a head injury when I think of it right away, which is so interesting considering what I do for a living.
But when I think of the person, the elderly per- the elderly person, the 75 plus person that falls, what do you think about? I'm gonna guess I'm not alone when I say a broken hip, right? This is what we've been trained to.
A hip fracture is a serious thing for an ind- a person, like, and that needs to get to a hospital, and it typically needs surgery and all the things.
So I want you to think about the last person, if you're a clinician, I want you to think about your average concussion client, the last person that walked through your door.
If you're listening to this, maybe it's yourself if you've been on a journey, right? But who do you picture when I talk about the concussion client? Who do you think of? I would say most of us, or many people, tend to instinctively think about athletes, or they might think of people ultimately within the ages of, let's say, 16 to 35 or 40, right? You might think of the recreational person, the workplace injury, um, domestic violence goes into that as well, right? So we might think of that age range.
And in all truth, most of the research around concussion are in individuals between 16 to 30 some odd years old, and most of the research with concussion, which has been identified more and more lately, is actually, it's in athletes, right? And we know that we cannot do a direct comparison of an athlete to the general population, so there is absolutely more research coming out that is showing outcomes of the general population as opposed to just athletes.
We also know now that we necessarily can't look at it as men and women the same.
There's differences in symptoms, like everything, right? So when we think of concussion and we think of, if you think of that person, I'm gonna, I'm just gonna take a wild guess that you probably picture an individual between 16 to 35.
Maybe it's an athlete, maybe it's a mom, maybe it's a dad, may- whatever it is, that might be who you picture.
Traumatic brain injury, TBI, is the leading cause of injury-related death and hospitalization in adults over the age of 65.
This could be the person who slips in the kitchen, right? And I think when we think of our el- now here's the thing.
Really the greatest injury is over 75, okay? Like I think of my, my grandmother is 86Still alive and kicking.
But when we think of our elderly and we think of falls, what i- I know what I think of right-- What do you think of right away? I know what I think of right away.
It sure as fuck isn't a concussion or a head injury when I think of it right away, which is so interesting considering what I do for a living.
But when I think of the person, the elderly per- the elderly person, the 75 plus person that falls, what do you think about? I'm gonna guess I'm not alone when I say a broken hip, right? This is what we've been trained to.
A hip fracture is a serious thing for an ind- a person, like, and that needs to get to a hospital, and it typically needs surgery and all the things.
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