Area Girl Scouts earn mental wellness and first aid patches with hands on event

HCA Florida Sarasota Doctors Hospital and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Sarasota and Manatee Counties teamed up to help local Girl Scouts earn their mental wellness and first aid patches. Therapists and nurses from the hospital and NAMI provided a special workshop for girls from Girl Scouts of Gulfcoast Florida in grades four through 12. The girls learned positive coping skills, self-care, how to seek help when needed and how to support others with fun, hands on activities. At the end of the program the girls earned their mental wellness patches. Girls also toured the hospital emergency room, learned first aid and made first aid kits with nurses to earn their first aid badges. The mental wellness patch program is part of a national research based program developed in partnership by the HCA Healthcare Foundation, NAMI and Girl Scouts of the USA Program Advisory Committee. The program launched nationwide last year and this is the first time it is being offered for local Girl Scouts.