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Worker Wellness Blog thruFeb 1, 2026

This week’s edition of our Worker Wellness blog looks at an upstream vs downstream approach to Mental Health—to Springsteen’s new song addressing the chaos in MN—to the benefits of volunteering…especially for retirees.

 

Focal Point: This week I wish to share with our readers the progress being made with setting up the STL Building Trades Wellness Coalition. As noted, in an earlier blog, we held our first official collaborative meeting for 2026 on Jan 28th at the Laborers LU 110 Event Center. With over 60 people in attendance—and lots of new faces—we kicked off the new year in a very positive direction, as follows:

            1) Kindbridge Behavioral Health served as our sponsor and provided an overview of the online therapy services their organization provides with a focus towards problem gambling.

            2) A presentation followed promoting upcoming MH training sessions on Feb 13 (Building Resilience) and Mar 26 (Workplace/Domestic Violence). Please see [1] below for more info.

            3) In addition, we showcased a flexible 3-tier Peer Specialist training pathway for our partners to consider as more unions undertake their versions for modeling peer support—

                        Initial / Secondary / Auxiliary

            4) Then, a hearty Q&A session allowed for participants to dig deeper and/or share their thoughts on the materials covered.

            5) Last but not least, we unveiled our NEW website. [1]

 

To be sure, this start-up is a work-in-progress and, for the foreseeable future, is 100% volunteer-driven. A big thanks to David, James, Mindi, and Ashley for moving this ball down the field. I urge you to please take the time to visit our website. The success of OUR mission requires YOUR input! Finally, if you cannot make 1 or 2 of the upcoming training sessions, then mark your calendar and join us for our next quarterly collaborative meeting at IBEW Local 1 on Apr 24.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upcoming webinars, etc.:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NOTE: The links provided above are for informational purposes only. None of these serve as a substitute for medical advice one should obtain from his/her own primary care physician and/or mental health professional. Please contact Dr John Gaal, Chief Learning Officer, at stlbtwc@gmail.com with related questions or comments.

 


 
 
 

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