UNC teams with The Trust to provide retired NFL players healthcare

Entrusted with the well-being of former NFL players, UNC’s Brain and Body Health Program will expand in December.

The NFL Players Association announced UNC as one of three medical partners last week in The Trust, a program that focuses on the health and success of retired players.

The program provides retired players with health assessments, financial advising and other services to help them transition out of the NFL and teach them how to lead a healthy and successful life.

Jeff Saturday, UNC alumnus and The Trust’s midwest captain, said UNC was chosen because of the school’s history with researching sports injuries.

“(UNC has) seen and dealt with many issues that our former players are and will continue to deal with,” he said in an email. “Their partnership with The Trust will only strengthen the ongoing effort to improve players’ quality of life after football.”

The UNC arm of the project is led by Kevin Guskiewicz, who has been studying sports concussions and working with retired football players for more than 10 years. He is also one of the founders of UNC’s Center for the Study of Retired Athletes.

Karla Thompson, a clinical neuropsychologist who will work with The Trust, said Guskiewicz is an expert on the health care that the NFL Players Association’s program is providing.

“I have no doubt that the reason UNC was chosen as one of the three sites is because of Guskiewicz’s work with both the Players Association and the NFL,” she said.

The initiative expands on UNC’s existing Brain and Body Health Program that began a year and a half ago by adding an internal medicine evaluation and a sports nutritionist to the program.

Thompson will gauge retired players’ current cognitive and psychological functioning, performing tests that measure attention, concentration, learning and memory.

“I think one of the most pressing concerns for retired football players at this point is the question of whether they are at risk for developing some form of dementia down the road,” Thompson said.

The NFLPA estimated there could be up to 500 players a year evaluated, Thompson said.

The Brain and Body Health Program will begin seeing former players in December and expects to be running at full scale in January.

The Trust also supplies monetary support for health services utilized through the program. Previously, players who came to the Brain and Body Health Program had to pay out of pocket if their insurance did not cover the full costs.

As long as they meet The Trust’s qualifications, the remaining balance will now be covered. If an individual does not have insurance, The Trust will cover core services, which include MRI tests. This will help meet The Trust’s goal of reaching all former athletes who played two or more years in the league.

Program Manager Jonathan Defreese said players have earned the right to receive health care.

“These guys, just like any of us, have different health issues,” he said. “We enjoy working with them.”

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