HCA Healthcare colleagues and Girl Scout alums champion mental health

By Karen Thompson
Assistant Vice President, Community Engagement, HCA Healthcare

Joining Girl Scouts is a lifelong journey filled with exciting adventures and opportunities for personal growth. I learned at a young age to live by the Girl Scout Promise and Law, which reminds us to respect ourselves, make the world a better place and – most importantly – be kind. I’ve carried those ideals with me throughout my life and career, including into my current role as assistant vice president of community engagement for HCA Healthcare.

Girl Scouts helped me become a confident and successful woman, but young girls today are facing a host of new and different challenges. Data around mental health for young girls is staggering. Data released from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) this year revealed that 1 in 3 high school girls in the U.S. have seriously considered attempting suicide and, nearly 3 in 5 reported feeling persistently sad or hopeless.

To me, this issue is personal, and I am honored to lead innovative mental wellness initiatives nationally for the HCA Healthcare Foundation’s Healthier Tomorrow Fund. I’m even more proud to work alongside an organization that’s had such a profound impact on my life to combat this issue.

Last summer, we launched the HCA Healthcare Foundation’s sponsorship of the Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) Mental Wellness Patch Program. The program aims to teach girls in grades 4^th through 12^th to recognize and understand their feelings, effectively cope with mental health challenges and to feel comfortable seeking help.

The GSUSA Mental Wellness Patch Program is now available nationwide and has been the most downloaded program for several weeks. This program would not be what it is without the hard work of our partners at GSUSA, the experts at the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and our Behavioral Health Services clinicians.

In collaboration with GSUSA, NAMI and my colleagues at HCA Healthcare, I hope that we can provide the current and next generation of Girl Scouts, their families and troop leaders with a suite of meaningful tools to help young girls manage their mental health and employ healthy tactics to live a happier life.

Throughout the launch of this program, we’ve received feedback from HCA Healthcare colleagues across the country who have strong ties to GSUSA. Some are former Girl Scouts themselves, others are the parent or grandparent of current Girl Scouts and a number of colleagues currently lead Girl Scout troops.

Did you know? Girl Scouts of the USA is the largest girl-led organization in the world. Currently, there are about 2.6 million girl and adult members worldwide.

Below, meet a few of my remarkable colleagues who are championing mental health alongside GSUSA.

Melanie Feitig
Trauma Abstractor

Girl Scouts of all ages recite – and live by – the ideals listed in the Girl Scout Promise and Law. At a young age, HCA Healthcare colleague Melanie Feitig saw her fellow scouts exemplify what it means to “be a sister to every Girl Scout.”

When she experienced the loss of a family member in elementary school, Melanie’s troop became her support system when she initially felt isolated. “I didn’t know how to cope with the feelings of depression and anxiety,” Melanie recalled. “The only people that helped me were in my troop. They attended the funeral and sent flowers and well wishes. They supported me.” Thanks to her troop’s continuous support, Melanie was given a safe space to heal emotionally.

Throughout her ten years as a Girl Scout, Melanie set out to earn as many badges and patches as she could. While memorable excursions to zoos and theaters stood out during her childhood, Melanie is grateful for the values and self-confidence instilled in her that followed her into adulthood.

Through her role at HCA Healthcare, Melanie continues to live out the Girl Scout Promise and Law every day. As a trauma abstractor for HCA Healthcare’s MidAmerica Division, she analyzes patient data to inform behavioral health best practices and improve patient outcomes. “I may not have direct patient contact, but I work with a team who all share the same goal – improving the quality of healthcare that every patient receives,” Melanie explained.

Melanie’s hope for the Mental Wellness Patch Program is that every girl who has experienced anxiety or depression will feel less alone in the world. “It’s important to teach young girls about mental health and resources they can use to aid in these feelings,” she said. “No child deserves to feel alone.”

Sherri Neal
HCA Healthcare’s Chief Diversity Officer

Sherri Neal, HCA Healthcare’s Chief Diversity Officer, and her team are responsible for leading the design, development and implementation of diversity, inclusion, equity, and cultural competence strategy and programs. However, her journey into leadership began early on as a proud Girl Scout – a transformative experience that laid the foundation for her values and leadership skills.

“Whether you think of the cookie program or the patch opportunities, or the camaraderie between girls, this organization is building skills for life,” Sherri said. “I experienced it myself and also saw it unfold in the lives of so many girls and young women. The life skills and tools that are developed bolster the confidence, leadership and most importantly, community engagement for every girl and young woman participant.”

Additionally, Sherri has proudly served in several capacities, including troop leader and the vice president of membership and programs for Girl Scouts of Middle Tennessee for several years. In these roles, she was able to see firsthand the incredible impact the organization has on young girls and women every day.

Sherri recognizes that Girl Scouts has the power to touch the lives of girls and young women across the country with information, skills and learning in ways that can set them up for success later in life. That is why she says the focus on mental wellness, including the Mental Wellness Patch Program, is more important than ever.

“While the topic of mental health is stigmatized, this program opens doors on tackling one of the biggest challenges facing young people,” Sherri said. “Recently, there was a report of the mental health crisis facing teen girls and the data was stark. This program provides an opportunity to address some of the pressing issues and provide the support that is needed.”

In Sherri’s eyes, it’s not just about addressing the problem but about equipping the next generation with the tools they need to navigate the complex landscape of mental health.

Holly Simmons
Nurse Educator 

Holly Simmons, a nurse educator in HCA Healthcare’s Capital Division in Virginia, didn’t hesitate to sign up her daughters for Girl Scouts. “As a child, I didn’t get to participate in Girl Scouts,” Holly recalled. “I knew – if I had girls – I definitely wanted them to be exposed to all that this organization has to offer.” She considers the time and energy spent volunteering with her daughter’s troop is well worth the experiences had, relationships made and life skills learned.

Through earning badges, completing patch programs, attending camps and participating in projects like cookie sales or camping, Girl Scout troops can learn a variety of life skills and lessons. So far, Holly says her daughters’ troops have learned outdoor safety and survival skills, effective communication and collaboration and, most importantly, how to be successful leaders who work together for the greater good.

Holly knows the new GSUSA Mental Wellness Patch Program introduced in 2023 will be important for girls – like her own daughters – at this formative age. “The well-being of a girl is critical to their development,” Holly said.

Elysha Revell
Patient Access Central Unit Team Lead

Elysha Revell’s journey with Girl Scouts began at the young age of five, and it has been an integral part of her life over the past three decades. Now, Elysha serves as a parent and patient access team lead for HCA Healthcare’s South Atlantic and Mountain Divisions. She is also a proud leader of a Girl Scout troop of Daisies and Brownies – girls beginning their own Girl Scout journey. “The girls in our troop, even at such a young age, really enjoy helping the community and bringing joy to others.”

One of the troop’s favorite activities is visiting local parks, beaches or lakes to pick up trash and help clean up the area. Many of them have even incorporated the practice into their everyday lives.

Elysha’s troop is making lifelong friendships and memories, but also learning values such as strength, bravery, helpfulness, compassion and honesty. Her greatest hope is that by instilling these values early on, the girls will grow into happy and healthy adolescents and adults.

“Girls are met with such high expectations by the society we live in today – physically, characteristically and academically. This stress can really affect young girls not only in their daily lives but for years to come. I believe it’s very important to teach young girls how to cope with stress and mental health issues.”

Did you know? The Girl Scout Cookie program is the largest girl-led business in the world. When a Girl Scout sells you cookies, she is learning goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills and business ethics – skills essential to leadership, success and life.

Jamie Mincey
Nurse Manager

For HCA Healthcare colleague Jamie Mincey, being a Girl Scout is part of her family’s legacy. Jamie, her mother and her grandmother were all proud Girl Scouts. And now, her daughter Colbie is continuing the family tradition as a fourth-generation Girl Scout.

Jamie still remembers her favorite outing as a young Girl Scout – caroling at a local nursing home. The experience – along with her desire to help others – inspired her career in geriatrics. Jamie proudly serves patients as a nurse manager at the Senior Healthcare Center at The Village, part of HCA Florida North Florida Hospital, in Gainesville, Florida.

Jamie hopes Girl Scouts will be just as impactful for Colbie as it was for her, her mother and her grandmother. The nurse manager and mother also is confident that it will instill in Colbie the values of leadership, empowerment, perseverance, service and growth that they all learned.

By earning badges and patches, Girl Scouts – like Colbie – have the opportunity to explore their interests and develop new ones as the programs available to girls continue to evolve. She is hopeful that the new Mental Wellness Patch Program will give girls across the country access to new tools that will help them thrive. “Learning skills to manage stress and cope with life events in a healthy way as a young person is a skill that will be used throughout their life,” Jamie said.

Jennifer Fredrick
Human Resources Vice President

Jennifer Fredrick was a Girl Scout herself for most of her childhood. However, her Girl Scout journey did not end there. It continued in her role as a Girl Scout troop leader for the past 17 years. Jennifer, a mother to five daughters, has taken a turn leading each of their troops to ensure they have the opportunity to experience Girl Scouts.

Her household lives by the values of the Girl Scout law, and Jennifer credits those values as part of why HCA Healthcare hired her as the vice president of human resources at Rapides Regional Medical Center in Alexandria, Louisiana.

Jennifer didn’t initially plan to become a troop leader, but once she learned that her daughter and others wouldn’t have a chance to participate without volunteers, the decision was clear. She says she lives every moment in the service of others.

“From holding a door for someone to donating to the HCA Healthcare Hope Fund, and from dedicating time and money to Girl Scouts to sleeping at the hospital during storms to ensure I can work despite the ice or snow, [service] is a lifestyle choice,” Jennifer said.

Jennifer hopes one of the values Girl Scouts instills in her daughters is a love of service to others. As a parent, she is also optimistic about the resources the new Mental Wellness Patch Program will provide them in a society where “the impact of social media on girls (and women) has been profound, and not in a good way.”