Infant Simulator helps prevent pregnancies at youth rehab home 

Fargo, N.D. – The students at Eckert Youth Homes aren't having fun anymore.

That's what Dr. Leah Hoffman, clinical director, says about the young people she works with every day. Eckert Youth Home is an adolescent youth treatment facility for students experiencing substance abuse. Located in Williston, the facility serves about 50 North Dakota students ages 14-18 each year.

"These young people are often self-medicating due to trauma like physical violence, domestic violence and human trafficking. This is not their fault," she said.

Eckert Youth Home focuses on helping individuals and their families understand the problems created by substance abuse, the need to change behavior and ways to develop and maintain healthy relationships. The home serves boys and girls from across the state. Capacity sometimes limits how many students they can serve, however, pregnant youth receive priority, Dr. Hoffman said.

To support them, Eckert purchased the "RealCare Baby 3" Simulator and accompanying four-section curriculum in 2024 with BCBSND Caring Foundation grant funding with the hope of helping students increase their understanding and comfort of infant care. Infant simulators like the RealCare Baby replicate human newborns. They have electronic capacity to mimic infant behaviors like napping, crying or needing diaper changes. The students named the simulator "Baby Clara" after one of the program's founders -- Clara Eckert.

"Our ultimate goal is pregnancy prevention," she said. "We hope Baby Clara can help them understand how difficult parenting can be."

Without Baby Clara, many of the Eckert students wouldn't receive this kind of education, Dr. Hoffman said. Her students don't always receive the traditional high school experience and learning to care for an infant is not covered in General Educational Development (GED) programs.

"It's so important to cover this, so we can break some generational traumas," she said. "Plus, the students love it. Both boys and girls - their faces light up. They look forward to changing the baby's diaper and giving her medicine. Baby Clara brings out a whole different side of them."

"Baby Clara is so special," said Amber Blomberg, Blue Cross Blue Shield Caring of North Dakota Caring Foundation & Community Engagement Executive Director. "She offers education access and quality that these young people didn't have before. Because of Baby Clara, these students and their families may see economic and social impacts for generations to come."

Married for 63 years, Founders Fred and Clara Eckert did not have children of their own. For 10 years before Clara’s death in 1963, the couple nurtured the idea of developing a home for boys and girls. Through estate planning, the Eckert's established “The Fred and Clara Eckert Foundation for Children” which opened in 1975.

BUILD grants support rural health care providers and their communities. These funds, made possible by the BCBSND Caring Foundation, help these organizations address their unique health and wellness challenges. This year, BUILD grants invested more than $45,000 into eight organizations.

In addition to the Eckert Youth Home, those organizations include:

• Cooperstown Center Medical Foundation – Cooperstown: The focus of this project was to create a handicap accessible garden that is a safe environment for care residents and community to connect to nature, associated with improving physical and mental health.
• House of Everyday Learning - Fargo: The focus of this project was to help alleviate the burdens that families experience driving to Fargo for pediatric screenings or therapy services on a weekly or bi-weekly frequency. The Mobile Therapy Unit (MTU) Program brings these services directly to the rural communities and decreases barriers such as transportation, cost and time away from work and school for the families that it serves, while also increasing availability and access to health care.
• Langdon Prairie Health - Langdon: The Langdon community educated and provided resources to community members from different socioeconomic backgrounds to increase use of mental health services that are available by telehealth in a private, confidential and secure setting. These efforts focused on two specific population groups, youth and farmers, to assist in treatment of depression, anxiety and traumatic events.
• Northland Health Center – Turtle Lake: “A Care Closet” provided a free resource for students and their families who are experiencing hardships, like food insecurity or lack of weather-appropriate clothing, basic hygiene supplies, school supplies and more.         
• Pembina County Memorial Hospital - Cavalier: This project provided an outdoor activity for the residents, staff and community volunteers at Wedgewood Manor, a skilled nursing facility in Cavalier. The Cycling with Love project provides XYZ and includes all ages and stages of life.
• Sanford Health -- Hillsboro: This project provided adaptive devices to allow those with mobility issues to get to medical appointments.
• Sanford Health – Valley City: The Promotion of Breastfeeding in Rural Populations program addressed several social determinants of health areas including health care access and quality, economic stability and education access and quality. One Certified Lactation Consultant and two nurses travel to other Sanford Health rural clinics where lactation services and support do not exist.

Learn more about BUILD grants at bcbsnd.com/caring-foundation.

About the BCBSND Caring Foundation

Established in 1989, the BCBSND Caring Foundation is a private 501(c)(3) charitable organization. Over these 30 years, the Caring Foundation has worked to improve the health and well-being of North Dakotans and their communities. Through collaborations with organizations across North Dakota, it is our goal to support sustainable and innovative efforts that promote better outcomes and create lasting change. 

Contact:

Melissa Richard
Director of Communications
BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD OF NORTH DAKOTA, FARGO
952-240-3477 (mobile) | melissa.richard@bcbsnd.com | www.bcbsnd.com