Brain Injury Association Offers Tips to Prevent Prom Injuries

For several years now, the Brain Injury Association of Massachusetts has conducted the Think Ahead program, designed to educate teenagers and schoolchildren about the importance of preventing brain injuries.  Now, the Brain Injury Association has enhanced the Think Ahead program to prepare students for the increased risk of car accidents and brain injuries on prom night.

The new program is called Think Ahead: Prepare for Prom, and is a dynamic course that is designed to educate teenagers about the risks of brain injury during prom season.  The course is of a 60-minute duration, and teaches students to avoid risky behaviors that increase the chances of a brain injury.

Think Ahead: Prepare for Prom also offers a course for parents that will help them communicate with their teens, and help them stay safe on prom night.  The biggest problem that parents and teenagers have to deal with on prom night, is peer pressure.  Alcohol flows freely on this night, even though Massachusetts laws prevent people below the age of 21 from imbibing or possessing alcohol.  Underage drinking is a widespread practice, and on no other night do those practices surface as strongly as they do on prom night, when everyone’s in a mood to shed inhibitions.

Through the Think Ahead program, the Brain Injury Association of Massachusetts want parents to know that even if their children have been living a clean life until now and have never experimented with narcotics or alcohol use, prom night could be the night that everything changes.  Many teenagers feel pressured to drink, or try out drugs and engage in other reckless activities during prom.

The Brain Injury Association of Massachusetts advises parents to monitor their children’s whereabouts and transportation options on prom night, and sponsor an alcohol-free party at home after prom.  If the after-prom celebrations are continuing in your home, ensure that all the alcohol is locked away safely.

Boston car accident lawyers would add one more piece of advice to teens across Boston – Avoid driving under the influence of alcohol, and make sure that your friends don’t drink and drive either. If you suffer brain injuries in an accident, there is no complete cure or treatment available to you.  Recovery options are very limited, and these are injuries that can dramatically change the course of the rest of your life.