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Dr. Shelina Babul receives Alumni UBC Global Citizenship Award

July 30, 2025
Concussion
A photo of the city of Medellín, Colombia

BCIRPU Director Dr. Shelina Babul has been recognized for her international work in concussion education and prevention with a 2025 Alumni UBC Global Citizenship Award.
 
The Global Citizenship Award is given to a UBC alum in recognition of community or voluntary service that has gained international recognition and made a global difference. Throughout her career, Dr. Babul has worked to improve concussion diagnosis, treatment, and management, and lead prevention efforts. She created the Concussion Awareness Training Tool (CATT), an internationally used resource with evidence-based information and training on concussion. CATT is part of the federal Concussion Harmonization Project, and the website, cattonline.com, receives over 100,000 visits a year.

Dr. Babul has worked to incorporate concussion education into the medical education system; earlier this year, she was awarded a 2025 Certificate of Merit Award from the Canadian Association for Medical Education. In 2024, she contributed to the development of the BC clinical practice guideline for concussion and mild traumatic brain injury.

Dr. Babul has worked to improve concussion education globally. Earlier this year, she travelled to Colombia with University of Victoria Professor Dr. Mauricio Garcia-Barrera to help healthcare professionals understand the latest in evidence-based concussion diagnosis and management. In 2023, Dr. Babul and BCIRPU Investigator Dr. Ian Pike travelled to Lebanon to mentor colleagues at the American University of Beirut on injury prevention. This collaboration led to the formation of the ICARE program, which provides school nurses with the knowledge and protocols needed to respond to concussions in educational settings.

Dr. Babul completed her BSc in Biopsychology and PhD in Kinesiology and Exercise Physiology at UBC.

“I am humbled to be recognized by my alma mater for my work in concussions,” Dr. Babul said. “Concussions are not a problem unique to Canada—they can happen to anyone, at any time. Although concussions are better recognized and treated than they were ten years ago, there is still work to be done to improve education and awareness.”  

Dr. Babul will be formally recognized at the Alumni UBC Achievement Award ceremony on November 6, 2025. Congratulations!

  • concern for the injured child and the child’s family;
  • distress when a child was in pain and when a family was grieving; and
  • sadness in the event they were not able to save a child in their care.

Particularly traumatic events, such as those involving vivid sights and sounds (e.g., families holding each other and having extreme reactions), stuck with the practitioners, having long-lasting impressions on them and causing them to re-live these events in the years following their exposure.

Even after their shift was over, practitioners said that they changed how they approached parenting and how they perceived safety during play as a result of witnessing these traumatic events. They reported having more knowledge of the causes and consequences of severe injuries, such as those that require hospitalization or emergency care. For example, practitioners were more likely to enforce boundaries around where their children could play, such as by forbidding their child to play near busy streets. They also were more likely to tell their child about safe play environments and equipment, and put this equipment on their child before play, such as explaining the benefits of using helmets while riding bikes.

Practitioners were more likely to enforce boundaries around where their children could play, and use safety equipment, such as bike helmets.

Practitioners also described being concerned about their children’s play near open windows, around large bodies of water unsupervised, and in environments where firearms were present. They also expressed worry about their children’s play on trampolines and on motorized vehicles, such as ATVs. Findings related to trampoline play safety concerns were published in the journal Injury Prevention.

Observing family grief due to child injury or death affected the mental well-being of health care practitioners, drawing attention to the need for mental health supports for those involved in caring for severely injured and dying patients.

Resilience is learning to cope with failure, overcoming fear, building self-confidence
Dr. Michelle Bauer
"Raise more resilient children through play...watch and see how your child handles challenging tasks without intervening right away." —Dr. Michelle Bauer

Building resilience through play

How can parents help their children build resilience? By letting them play!

The experiences that practitioners witnessed encouraged them to support their children in building resilience through play; specifically, by supporting children in learning to cope with failure, overcome fear, build self-confidence, develop distress tolerance, and regulate negative emotions. Findings related to building resilience through play were published in the journal Child: Care, Health, and Development.

Help your child build resilience: watch and wait, ask how they want help, make play safe and exciting

Parents fostered resilience in their kids by:

  • helping their kids get back on bikes after they fell off and wanted to try again;
  • sitting on their hands so they did not instinctively reach for their children when their children fell down; and
  • encouraging participation in challenging and thrilling activities in forests and water while safety equipment was used.

"There are a few ways that parents can raise more resilient children through play that are supported by literature and our study findings," said Dr. Bauer. "One: watch and see how your child handles challenging tasks without intervening right away."

"Two: Ask your child how they want you to help—let them tell you what makes them feel safe and happy during play. Let them lead. And three: make play both safe and exciting by encouraging risk-taking, teaching them how to avoid hazards, and using safety equipment.”

This research was supported through Drs. Bauer’s and Gilley’s receipt of a clinical and translational research seed grant from the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute (BCCHR), Dr. Bauer’s BCCHR postdoctoral fellowship award, and additional training provided to Dr. Bauer through her participation in the Programs and Institutions Looking to Launch Academic Researchers (PILLAR) program through ENRICH, a national organization training perinatal and child health researchers.

Learn more about the study through two infographic posters:

thumbnail of poster of exposure
Exposure to traumatic incidents (PDF)
thumbnail of poster on resilience
Building resilience through play (PDF)

Graphics and posters by Milica Radosavljevic

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