National Depression Screening Day 2011 is in the books! This year marked the 21st National Depression Screening Day and the event once again served as an important awareness and screening initiative. We wanted to share some of the highlights of this year’s screening events with the CollegeResponse community to inspire counseling centers, acknowledge hard work, and encourage continued participation in the coming months and academic years.
NDSD by the Numbers
This year, 615 colleges and universities participated in National Depression Screening Day (NDSD). Of those schools, 447 held online screenings and 216 held in-person screening events. During the week of NDSD, students completed 14,362 online depression screenings. Students also turned out in big numbers for the in-person events. According to our feedback to date, 26,611 students attended depression screening events and 19,082 students took a screening.
NDSD Feedback
Each year, we send out surveys following screening events to get feedback on what worked and what needs improvement. We have started to compile and analyze the feedback from National Depression Screening Day 2011, and some trends are already beginning to emerge.
More than 91% of screening sites rated both the posters and the one-sheet educational fliers as "excellent" or "good". On the opposite end of the spectrum, most participants did not find the magnets to be a useful addition to the kits.
The vast majority of in-person screening events were held at the campus student union building and those events were usually promoted through posters, social media, and the school website.
Here’s what some participants are saying:
"Students reacted in a positive way to the messages, even if no follow-up was needed. Many students were encouraged to seek services and did follow through with this which to us is a success." – Jennifer Walsh, predoctoral intern, University of Rochester
"I think we had great participation and were able to schedule around 10 counseling appointments with students on the spot." – Squire Paige, counselor, Mount Ida College
Screening site feedback helps us in many ways as we begin preparing next year’s kits and planning new screening programs. If you participated in National Depression Screening Day and have not yet completed our survey, we would love to hear from you. Click here to take the brief survey.
NDSD Webinar: Do You Know Where Your Students Are?
In conjunction with NDSD, we also held a webinar highlighting suicide prevention and depression awareness on campus. Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas, Dr. Dolores Cimini, and Dr. Bruce Herman contributed to this timely and informative session. If you missed it, head to our webinar library to view the presentation.
NDSD in College Newspapers
National Depression Screening Day received media attention from a large range of media outlets, including college newspapers. Articles like these can help spread the word about the availability of screenings while increasing mental health awareness on campus.
Virginia Tech – Collegiate Times
Lawrence University – Lawrentian
Boston University – BU Today
Oregon State University – Daily Barometer
Northern Illinois University – Northern Star
The importance of screening for mental illness is never limited to one day. As in-person screening event numbers are tallied, online screenings will continue, year-round. Online screenings make it possible to keep the momentum of National Depression Screening Day alive, 365 days a year. Thank you for your participation and your commitment to mental health awareness.