Blue Shield of California's Wellvolution Program Now Offers Headspace App to Help Members Reduce Stress and Increase Resilience

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Blue Shield expands Wellvolution to include behavioral health support with science-backed mindfulness and meditation app at no additional cost for eligible members

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Blue Shield of California

Oct 26, 2021, 11:00 ET

OAKLAND, Calif., Oct. 26, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Blue Shield of California today announced that mindfulness and meditation app Headspace is now available to its members through the nonprofit health plan's Wellvolution program.

Headspace offers hundreds of tools and more than 1,000 exercises to reduce stress and improve one's mental wellbeing. The app joins the extensive resources offered on Blue Shield's Wellvolution, a digitally based lifestyle medicine and health platform provided in collaboration with Solera Health that can be personalized to each member's individual health needs and preferences.

The addition of Headspace expands Wellvolution to now include behavioral health support. Blue Shield members already enjoying Wellvolution's lifestyle medicine service can now add Headspace to their support system with no additional cost to them. Blue Shield of California continues to build its behavioral health program for its members and the community that now includes expanded telehealth options and BlueSky, the health plan's multi-year commitment to support youth mental health throughout the state.

"There's no question that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has elevated stress levels for everyone," said Bryce Williams, vice president, Mind Body Medicine at Blue Shield of California. "With Headspace, our members receive a scientifically validated, clinically effective solution to improve their mental health and wellbeing."

Headspace research has demonstrated that the app's guided meditations can reduce stress and anxiety, improve sleep, and increase focus, self-esteem, and resilience. The company has found:

10 days of Headspace utilization resulted in 14% decrease in stress.
8 weeks of using Headspace resulted in a 31% decrease in anxiety symptoms and 46% decrease in depressive symptoms.

Almost two years after it began, the pandemic continues to affect the lives of many Americans and stress remains present and problematic. According to the American Psychological Association, 78% of adults say the coronavirus pandemic is a significant source of stress in their life and 67% say they have experienced increased stress over the course of the pandemic.

"There has been a huge spike in the need for mental health support in the past few years and Headspace has been successful in helping people stress less, be more resilient, and get a better night's sleep," said Sarah Romotsky, director, Healthcare Partnerships Solutions at Headspace. "Through this valuable collaboration with Blue Shield, we hope to make mindfulness easy and accessible for all."

Wellvolution is Blue Shield's digitally based lifestyle medicine and health platform that can be personalized for individual health needs and preferences. Created in collaboration with Solera Health, Wellvolution provides members guided on-demand access to a tailored network of clinically proven apps using lifestyle to prevent, treat, and even reverse disease. It is available to most Blue Shield members with their benefit plan at no additional cost and is an example of how the nonprofit health plan is reimagining health for individuals, families, and communities.

"We are excited to continue our collaboration with such a forward-thinking health plan like Blue Shield of California to help meet the timely mental health needs of their members through offering our behavioral health network," said Mary Langowski, CEO, Solera Health. "There is a huge demand and need for these services, and we are happy to work together, with our partner Headspace, to make it easier for consumers to access mindfulness and mental wellbeing programs."

For more information about mental health resources through Blue Shield's Wellvolution platform, go to wellvolution.com/mentalhealth.

About Blue Shield of California
Blue Shield of California strives to create a healthcare system worthy of its family and friends that is sustainably affordable. Blue Shield of California is a tax paying, nonprofit, independent member of the Blue Shield Association with over 4.5 million members, over 7,500 employees and more than $21 billion in annual revenue. Founded in 1939 in San Francisco and now headquartered in Oakland, Blue Shield of California and its affiliates provide health, dental, vision, Medicaid, and Medicare healthcare service plans in California. The company has contributed more than $150 million to Blue Shield of California Foundation in the last four years to have an impact on California communities.

For more news about Blue Shield of California, please visit news.blueshieldca.com.

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About Headspace
Headspace was created with one mission in mind: to improve the health and happiness of the world. Reaching 70 million users in 190 countries, Headspace was one of the first meditation apps in the world and remains a leader in mindfulness and mental training. Headspace is committed to advancing the field of mindfulness through clinically validated research, with one of the largest research pipelines of any digital health and wellness company. Headspace operates a B2B business (Headspace for Work) to offer its mindfulness products and services to more than 2,200 companies, such as Starbucks, Adobe, Hyatt, and Unilever, to help them build healthier, more productive cultures and higher performing organizations. Headspace supports government entities like New York State and the UK's National Health Service (NHS) to offer digital mental health tools. Headspace partners with many of the world's most-recognizable brands, including Apple, Sesame Street, Spotify, Amazon, and Nike as well as Netflix for a three part mindfulness series that premiered in 2021. Headspace has been recognized as TIME100's Most Influential Companies of 2021, Fast Company's 10 most innovative social good companies of 2021 and World's Most Innovative Companies. Other accolades include Apple's Best of 2018, Samsung's Best of 2019 and one of CB Insights' top digital health companies, along with being selected for seven Webby Awards in podcasts, health and fitness. For more information, please visit us at www.headspace.com, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

About Solera
Solera Health is committed to changing lives by guiding people seamlessly to better health solutions, while providing payers and employers the tools to manage providers and outcomes across conditions. Solera's platform provides a marketplace of curated networks of digital and community point solutions focused on intensive, evidence-based lifestyle, behavioral and social interventions to impact the most prevalent and costly chronic conditions. Solera strategically matches consumers to their best-fit solution and helps keep them engaged for successful health outcomes.

CONTACT:
Mashi Nyssen
Blue Shield of California
510-607-2359
[email protected]

SOURCE Blue Shield of California