Ashley Douthart named a NH Healthcare Hero

LACONIA — During the last few years, those working in our healthcare community under extraordinary and unimaginable circumstances have gone above and beyond the call of duty to make sure New Hampshire’s healthcare system works and that Granite State residents are safe and well-cared for.

Ashley Douthart, a licensed clinical mental health counselor from HealthFirst Family Care Center was named a NH Healthcare Hero and honored during a pinning ceremony on Monday, Feb. 7 for her passion and advocacy to ensure her patients received the care they deserved throughout the pandemic.

For its second year, the NH Healthcare Heroes effort is honored to recognize the dedication, courage and commitment of several individuals in the state’s healthcare community. Seven healthcare heroes were recently selected from across the state through nominations submitted by colleagues, family, friends and patients and represent the second group of individuals honored through this program.

“We continue to see how critical the healthcare workforce is to New Hampshire,” said Roxie Severance, healthcare sector advisor for the New Hampshire Sector Partnerships Initiative. “It takes a full community of professionals — from nurses and licensed nursing assistants to cooks, maintenance technicians and dentists — to run our healthcare system. We’re excited to honor each of them and share their unique stories, so they serve as inspiration to those in or considering a healthcare career.”

Here’s what Ashley’s nominator said about her: “As the world as we knew it shut down due to the pandemic, the need for behavioral health services was more important than ever. Ashley worked tirelessly to transition the behavioral health team at HealthFirst to telemedicine to continue to provide the much-needed services to our patients, [and] she created a partnership with local schools to bring services to kids who are in need but possibly limited by time or transportation.”

For more information and to follow the stories from the heroes and runners up, follow the effort on social media at Facebook.com/HealthcareHeroesNH.