Becoming a Girl Scout means tapping into a supportive group of people who uplift you every step of the way. When it comes to caring for your mental wellness, the Girl Scouts Mental Wellness patch program reminds you that you’re never alone in facing challenges and further invites you to dive into and understand your emotions.
The Mental Wellness patch program was made possible by the HCA Healthcare Foundation and developed in collaboration with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).
Troop 65579 was one of the first troops that got to participate in this program when it was still a pilot program back in November 2022.
"The mental health badge had several positive impacts on my troop. Increasing awareness of various mental health issues enabled our troop to recognize signs and symptoms in themselves and others. I was surprised to discover the significant stigma surrounding counseling. Many in the troop perceived that seeking counseling implied something was inherently wrong with them. Providing a safe environment for discussing this topic strengthened the bonds among my troop. This badge facilitated a deeper understanding of themselves and others, contributing to personal development and resilience." - Troop Leader Michelle Ingle
Girl Scout Gold Award Alumni Caitlyn Branine had the opportunity to speak at NAMIcon this year. She shares why focusing on Mental Health is so important.
"My name is Caitlyn Branine. I just graduated in the spring of 2024 with my Bachelors from the University of Colorado Colorado Springs and am a Girl Scout alumnus. I was a Girl Scout from Brownie all the way up to Ambassador. During my time as a Girl Scout, I earned my Bronze and my Silver Awards. But what I am most proud of is earning my Girl Scout Gold Award. For my Gold Award project, I created a positive social media site called, ASafePlace2Share.org. A Safe Place 2 Share is a website where teens and young adults can go to share encouraging and powerful stories or positive messages with other users. They can use it as a place to talk with others and be heard when no one else will listen or when they feel like they don’t have anywhere else to go. Much like social media, other users can comment and spread encouraging messages on other users’ posts.
Earning my Gold Award was definitely a challenge and took a very long time to earn, but I think it was worth it because of how many people my website and I helped throughout the process. Some comments I received about the website include: “While things can be terrible, at ASafePlace2Share.org, I always have a friend who will listen”, from Justin, “I am struggling with so much and I have nowhere to go to but here”, from Wilson, and “Thank you, Caitlyn, for opening the conversations. Sharing with others is an amazing gift. You're never alone. None of us are ever alone” from Kiki.
On Wednesday, June 5th, I gave a presentation about A Safe Place 2 Share at the National Alliance on Mental Illness’ annual mental health conference (NAMICon). I had the chance to speak in front of many mental health professionals and people like me who were just as interested and passionate about mental health. Just like my website, it felt very powerful to get to share about my project with others who understood the importance of mental health and sharing your story with others.
I think focusing on mental health in general is super important, especially for teens and young adults. During my freshman year of high school, four students committed suicide. Ever since then I knew there had to be other students who felt similar emotions and needed help and support. Mental Health America posted the statistics for the percentage of middle school and high school students with depression as of last year. They posted that 2.7 million teenagers, about 12% in the nation, have depression (mhanational.org). 60% of those teens with depression don’t receive the counseling or treatment that they need. The University of California San Francisco states that the reasons they don’t get the treatment they need is because they don’t think their depression is bad enough to need treatment (ucsf.edu). But the main reasons I think they don’t get treatment is because they’re scared to ask for help or they don’t know where to go or who to talk to about it. If we don’t help and educate teens on their mental health and provide them resources, they could end up just like those four students committing suicide."