General News
Published May 20, 2019
Did you know that 1 in 5 Americans deal with some form of mental illness in their lives? One major reason mental health goes untreated is the stigma around mental illness.
A national emphasis on Mental Health Awareness during the month of May is intended to help remove the stigma. Premera Blue Cross is joining in that effort.
Increasing Wellness by Reducing Stigma
For many people, the subject of behavioral health is still taboo – yet the impacts of mental illness are far reaching. To bring awareness to mental illness, Bill Bernat, TED speaker and mental health awareness advocate, and Dr. Shawn West, medical director for Premera, recently appeared on New Day Northwest. They provided tips for starting conversations with friends, family, and coworkers about mental health. They also explore the importance of getting people connected with safe, effective treatment.
Watch the news segment now.
Start your own conversations
Stigma causes many people to avoid getting effective behavioral health. By enabling more open dialogue, you can help bring down this common barrier to living and working well.
Get practical tips to help your company talk about mental health more often and more easily in our handy guide: Tips to talk about mental health.
More information
- Premera has programs and services that support the behavioral health of members. Behavioral health benefits are included in every individual and group health plan.
- Premera is supporting efforts in the community that focus on improving behavioral health.
- We recently gave close to $600,000 to six behavioral health organizations.
- In April we supported a benefit for the Associated Students of Washington State University (ASWSU) Cougar Health Fund by matching 100 percent of the proceeds (up to $25,000) from ticket sales for the Washington State University’s spring football game. This fund is a student-run, student-led initiative to support WSU students on all campuses in the areas of mental health and sexual-violence prevention.