NASHVILLE, Tenn. / Sep 19, 2023 / Business Wire / HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA), one of the nation’s leading healthcare providers, today announced that the HCA Healthcare Foundation has helped Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) launch a new series of Mental Wellness Patch Programs to address mental wellness among girls in 4^th through 12^th grade. This is a result of the HCA Healthcare Foundation’s $1.38 million grant to GSUSA, through its Healthier Tomorrow Fund, which was announced last year.

“The HCA Healthcare Foundation has a long history of partnering with Girl Scouts nationally and locally. We are proud to deepen our partnership with Girl Scouts on this research-based mental wellness program,” said Joanne Pulles, vice president of community engagement at HCA Healthcare and president of the HCA Healthcare Foundation. “Girls need support now, more than ever, and thanks to the reach of the Girl Scouts model, we know that these resources have the potential to make a positive impact on countless young women.”

The GSUSA Mental Wellness Patch Programs, developed in partnership with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and the GSUSA Program Advisory Committee, including HCA Healthcare behavioral health experts, are currently available to all councils nationwide. The programs, Knowing My Emotions, Finding My Voice and Showing Up for Me and You, encourage girls to:

• Learn about mental wellness for themselves and others;
• Recognize and understand their feelings;
• Effectively cope with mental health challenges; and
• Feel comfortable seeking help.

The 90-minute programs include activities, such as making art or writing poetry, that foster resilience and help girls to better understand their world. Program materials also contain meeting aids, parent/caregiver resources, teaser activities and marketing tools to equip Girl Scout troop leaders and council staff with support and activities focused on mental wellness, behavioral issues and healthy habits. Each patch program also includes an adult facilitator guide to help adults approach girls in a sensitive way, prompt important conversations and guide them through difficult moments.

“We’re so grateful for the support of HCA Healthcare and its foundation for helping us provide these critical resources to Girl Scouts,” said Bonnie Barczykowski, CEO of GSUSA. “Fostering positive mental health habits has always been a focus of our work, but it’s needed now more than ever."

In addition to its national support of GSUSA, The HCA Healthcare Foundation has supported Girl Scouts locally since 1998 and in 2017 expanded to support specialty troops, including those with unhoused girls. In July, HCA Healthcare was a national sponsor of Phenom by Girl Scouts, an event that attracted more than 10,000 Girl Scouts. At the event, Girl Scouts and their parents or guardians participated in a variety of activities, including visiting HCA Healthcare’s booth to learn more about the Mental Wellness Patch Program.

HCA Healthcare is committed to promoting mental wellness for its patients, colleagues and communities. With approximately 2,300 sites of care, including 182 hospitals, in communities across 20 states, HCA Healthcare uses the knowledge and data from more than 320,000 annual behavioral health patient encounters to make positive advances in the ways it provides care to its patients.

In communities across the country, HCA Healthcare has responded to the need for mental health awareness through partnerships, including:

• EVERFI: Since 2020, HCA Healthcare has collaborated with EVERFI, an international technology company driving social change through education, to implement an interactive, mental health and wellness digital education course for middle and high school students. With HCA Healthcare’s support, the Understanding Mental Wellness course has reached more than 175,000 students and approximately 2,200 teachers at more than 800 schools across all 15 of HCA Healthcare’s U.S. divisions as of June 30, 2023.
• Volunteers of America: Last year, HCA Healthcare announced the HCA Healthcare Foundation and its Healthier Tomorrow Fund made a $600,000 grant to Volunteers of America (VOA) to promote mental wellness and resilience among first responders, including fire, police, EMT personnel and hospital and emergency staff.
• The Jason Foundation: Since 2013, HCA Healthcare has partnered with The Jason Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to the prevention of youth suicide through educational and awareness programs that equip young people, educators/youth workers, and parents with the tools and resources to help identify and assist at-risk youth.
• Psych Hub podcast series: Last year, HCA Healthcare and Psych Hub, the world's largest mental health education platform, in collaboration with Columbia University’s Department of Psychiatry, partnered to create two podcast series: “You Ask, We Answer” and “Coming Back Better” to bring people credible online mental health education.

For more information on the Girl Scouts Mental Wellness Patch Program, or to join Girl Scouts, visit Mental Wellness Patches (girlscouts.org).

About HCA Healthcare

Nashville-based HCA Healthcare is one of the nation’s leading providers of healthcare services comprising 182 hospitals and approximately 2,300 ambulatory sites of care, including surgery centers, freestanding ERs, urgent care centers, and physician clinics, in 20 states and the United Kingdom. With its founding in 1968, HCA Healthcare created a new model for hospital care in the United States, using combined resources to strengthen hospitals, deliver patient-focused care and improve the practice of medicine. HCA Healthcare has conducted a number of clinical studies, including one that demonstrated that full-term delivery is healthier than early elective delivery of babies and another that identified a clinical protocol that can reduce bloodstream infections in ICU patients by 44%. HCA Healthcare is a learning health system that uses its more than 37 million annual patient encounters to advance science, improve patient care and save lives.

About HCA Healthcare Foundation

The mission of the HCA Healthcare Foundation is to promote health and well-being and strive to make a positive impact in all the communities HCA Healthcare serves. We accomplish this mission by providing leadership, service and financial support to effective non-profit organizations working individually and collectively.

About Girl Scouts of the USA

Girl Scouts bring their dreams to life and work together to build a better world. Through programs from coast to coast, Girl Scouts of all backgrounds and abilities can be unapologetically themselves as they discover their strengths and rise to meet new challenges—whether they want to climb to the top of a tree or the top of their class, lace up their boots for a hike or advocate for climate justice, or make their first best friends. Backed by trusted adult volunteers, mentors, and millions of alums, Girl Scouts lead the way as they find their voices and make changes that affect the issues most important to them. To join us, volunteer, reconnect, or donate, visit girlscouts.org.

All references to “Company,” “HCA” and “HCA Healthcare” as used throughout this document refer to HCA Healthcare, Inc. and its affiliates.