ST. LOUIS – The Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis is enhancing community health programs with a $150,000 grant from Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield.
The funding will strengthen the Community Mobile Health Clinic and opioid triage team, addressing critical health disparities within the region.
“Based on what Anthem is giving us the opportunity to do, now as a sponsor of the health mobile unit for this entire year, we will be able to do some extraordinary things,” Mitch McMillian, president of Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, said.
The Community Mobile Health Clinic delivers essential medical care to vulnerable populations through screenings of blood pressure, diabetes and cholesterol, along with preventative care, such as flu shots. The program also screens for food insecurity, connecting individuals to nearby food banks.
“Urban League afforded me the opportunity to help myself; that’s what they did. They didn’t do it for me, they said, ‘Here’s the tools, here’s the opportunity, now you go for what you know,” Tracy Brown, a resident, said.
The opioid triage program will distribute an additional 1,000 sets of NARCAN around the region to places like churches, barber shops, convenience stores, apartment buildings and other centers.
“With this effort, we are going to be able to double down on our distribution of NARCAN,” James Clark from ULSTL said. “NARCAN is the only chemical agent that can reverse an overdose. In the division of public safety, we have documented over 55 instances last year where the NARCAN we distributed saved lives.”
