The goal of National Depression Screening Day is to provide colleges and universities with a platform to screen for treatable and frequently co-occurring mental health disorders, including depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder and bipolar disorder. In addition to screenings, National Depression Screening Day also aims to connect those in need with appropriate treatment and support services both through online screenings and in-person events.
National Depression Screening Day (NDSD) is October 11, 2012, but can also be held any day that is convenient for staff and students. Schools are encouraged to customize NDSD to individual campuses. A great way to guarantee attendance is to incorporate the screening event into an existing health fair or other well-attended activity.
A month out from your NDSD event:
- Select the date, hours of operation, and location for screening.
- Host your program in areas with heavy pedestrian traffic. If you have available staff, set up more than one event location.
- Discuss placing materials campus-wide during the week programming is held.
- Suggested places include: residential facilities, dining halls, libraries, disability services or health-related departments.
- Identify and recruit staff and students for your screening team.
- Partner with student government, residence life associations, Greek Life, campus safety, campus clergy, student affairs or any student organizations related to those departments.
- Consider having a guest speaker talk about his/her experience with overcoming depression or anxiety.
- Use the provided publicity, marketing and promotional materials on the Downloads Resource Page.
The online screening program provides students with the ability to assess their mental health anytime and anywhere, both anonymously and in confidence. Promoting the online screening is similar to promoting an in-person screening event. Both are tools that will be well utilized when strongly promoted and executed in collaboration with other campus resources.
In the weeks leading up to NDSD:
- Customize the general look and wording on your welcome page.
- It is best to include your school’s logo, picture and school colors. The “Welcome Message” is your chance to personally address your students and campus.
- Referral information is the most important feature of the online screening program.
- Consider resources that are available on or off campus, including links to helpful educational materials, national sites, and local hospitals or mental health resources.
- Prepare utilization reports.
- Monitoring the usage for your online screening module enables those implementing the program to effectively manage outreach efforts. We recently emailed online screening clients with specific instructions on how to access the module. To receive this information again, please email [email protected].
Remember, online promotion is often the best method for reaching students. Students report that they often ignore emails from college administration, so try school social media pages on Facebook and Twitter.
For more helpful tips on National Depression Screening Day promotion and best practices, please visit the Downloads Resource Page.
Questions? Please email [email protected] or call (781) 239-0071.