Wellness & Well-being Highlights December 1st

Wellness & Well-being Highlights

for the

Week of December 1, 2025

This week’s edition of our Worker Wellness & Well-being blog provides us a look at how fishing may be good for one’s Mental Health—to the negative link between your cell phone and your memory—to how another young athlete died from a game-related head injury.

This week I would like to discuss the importance of making adjustments to address a growing need across all US communities: Child Care. Many years ago, I wrote a master’s degree thesis that focused on the importance of bringing more diversity into the construction industry. Several barriers were identified back then, including but not limited to the following:

1) Transportation

2) Drug Testing

3) Math Scores

4) Child Care

In 2013, the BUD (Building Union Diversity) program began to take shape. Since then, it has expanded beyond the STL region into KC, Springfield, and the mid-Missouri area. While the program is now called Apprentice Ready Construction (ARC), more than 1 year ago MWI added manufacturing to its offerings and will soon expand into the healthcare sector. The point is that changes were made to suit the ongoing needs of society. To me, programs like BUD are great examples of how labor and management can jointly resolve vexing workforce development challenges and transition those lessons learned for the benefit of others well beyond the original intent.

In my opinion, within the confines of industry-specific programs like BUD, a lot of work has been done over the past decade+ to address the 4 barriers mentioned above. However, not enough is being done with respect to scaling up these accomplishments across all sectors and states! That is why I wish to highlight the universal child care program that New Mexico is undertaking. After all, depending on your source, child care can cost a family upwards of 20% of their income or around $2000/month. Torry and Frosch explain[1]

The program aims to get more people into the workforce and improve child development. The state, which has long struggled with high levels of poverty and poor educational rankings, also wants to attract and keep families with young children.

Not much gets done in today’s business world without money. To this end, it appears that NM has taken the first step in forging structural change with the potential of long term returns.

Please check out the rest of this week’s blog: https://moworksinitiative.org/category/worker-wellness-news/

Source: [1] https://www.wsj.com/us-news/in-a-u-s-first-new-mexico-opens-doors-to-free-child-care-for-all-2dfdea96?st=nkrpSj&reflink=article_gmail_share

Where Deaths Exceed Births