BCBS partners with the Boys & Girls Club to improve mental health care

Merrilee Logue, Executive Director of the National Labor Office (NLO) at Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA), and Keisha Adams, Managing Director of Strategic Execution and Partnerships for BCBSA, joined America’s Work Force Union Podcast to talk about their new partnership with the Boys & Girls Club of America to improve youth mental health care.

In previous conversations on the podcast, Logue discussed how the NLO and BCBSA utilize a trauma-informed approach to assist workers in healing from adverse childhood experiences. The approach has proven to help many adults recover from childhood trauma that has impacted them for years. The BCBSA’s goal is to find a way to use this approach to help younger individuals, which Logue said could significantly improve adult health.

According to Logue, nearly half of American children, approximately 34 million under 18, have faced potentially traumatic early experiences. Louge discussed a 2019 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that links childhood trauma events to several health concerns American adults report. Adams discussed the training that Boys & Girls Clubs staff will receive as part of the partnership. The 48,000 trained staff members will be able to better support the emotional and social well-being of more than 3 million children across the country, she said.

The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association announced the partnership comes with a $10 million investment over four years to implement trauma-informed practices and training by 2026. Adams talked about the current progress in training staff through a pilot program that began in 2023. To scale the training efforts and improve skill-building experiences, the investment allowed the Boys & Girls Club to launch a new Regional Training Center in Newark, N.J. Logue added that this program not only helps improve childhood mental health but will also help parents and families avoid missing work to tend to their children’s mental health.

Listen to the show above to hear more about the mental health care partnership. To find a Boys & Girls Club, please visit their website, BGCA.org.