[Page 978]As sports become more common in society, the number of accidents and injuries related to sports continues to rise. While the many health benefits of athletic activity outweigh the risk of injury, sport-related accidents and injuries need to be acknowledged and managed appropriately. Family members can influence one another's behavior, encouraging safety and injury prevention measures. They can monitor each other for injury and illness. And they can emotionally support one another through times of injury.

Given the broad age range of the modern-day athlete and their close clinical and personal relationship with families as a whole, family clinicians are ideally suited to address sport-related accidents and injuries.

Although a complete discussion of sport-related accidents and injuries among the various members of a family is beyond ...