October 11, 2012, marked Screening for Mental Health’s® 22nd annual National Depression Screening Day® (NDSD), spreading the importance of mental health awareness and depression screenings to colleges and universities across the country.
The CollegeResponse® community at Screening for Mental Health, Inc. would like to express our gratitude to everyone who put in time, energy and hard work toward making NDSD a success. We believe the screening numbers speak for themselves and we continue to emphasize the importance of the participation that we receive from counseling centers, faculty and staff in making NDSD the nationwide success that it has become.
NDSD 2012 was one for the history books, with 595 participating colleges and universities. The successful screening site promotion resulted in 40,935 anonymous online screenings during the month of October—a 17% increase over 2011!
NDSD’s success is due, in part, to the utilization of social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter. Schools used these pages to spread the word about the in-person NDSD events as well as the anonymous online screenings. According to Dr. John S. Schell and Dr. Carrie Berta, psychologists at Kent State University, promoting your event is paramount to having a successful NDSD event. “Significant promotional efforts include an informational letter and flyer mailed to faculty, staff and campus departments; use of social media to raise awareness and encourage participation; inclusion of the event and promotional materials in university and community calendars; print advertisements in campus and community newspapers; and digital advertisements throughout campus.”
Traditional media also helped spread awareness. Students from a number of colleges and universities wrote articles for their school newspaper highlighting NDSD and the significance of staying healthy both physically and mentally on campus. These articles helped direct traffic to NDSD events and online screening sites. Featured below are a few articles that were written by students.
Every year the CollegeResponse team asks those who took part in NDSD to complete a short survey on the success of their event. This provides vital feedback to Screening for Mental Health as well as others who plan on hosting an event in the future. Please remember, it is never too late to complete your survey! Below are a few tips and tricks we pulled from the survey responses to assist in making your next National Depression Screening Day a success.
- Incentives. Everyone likes a freebie. Based on some of the feedback we received from colleges and universities that had excellent in-person screening numbers, they unanimously agreed that incentives had a noteworthy influence on raising awareness of their NDSD event.
- Staffing your event is important. Be sure to have enough volunteers and staff available to your students and community. St. Mary’s College of Maryland highlighted the effect of staffing at their NDSD event, “The table is person-ed by two therapists who score the screenings and two Peer Health Educators (wearing the signature bright pink Peer Health Educator t-shirts) to recruit participants as they walk by. The Peer Health Educators know that the more students they approach, along with being friendly, the more likely they are to get participants. Therefore they actively engage with each student that walks by, asking for a few minutes of their time to take a quick screening.”
- Don’t reinvent the wheel! Use our downloadable resource page to help promote your event with posters, flyers and sample social media posts.
- Location, location, location. Holding your NDSD event in a busy location on your campus is essential. Dr. Robert Hynes the director of counseling services office at Fitchburg State University, went on to say, “We’ve found, over the years, that some combination of a higher-traffic location, some electronic publicity, and a personal touch (e.g., counseling staff often prepare some baked goods as an incentive for participation) seems to do the trick.”
- Keeping the screenings anonymous. San Jacinto College – South in Houston, Texas, went above and beyond to keep their students as comfortable as possible. Irma Graves, a counselor at San Jacinto College – South, explains how their college kept the in-person screenings anonymous: “I give out an informed consent card with the screening which states that the results are risk factors, not a diagnosis. I think that it also helps to ensure anonymity and confidentiality by not discussing the results out loud. Instead, I give out a business card with the results of the screenings marked off for any of the four areas of concern or for no follow-up needed. This card also states where our counseling office is located for free, personal counseling services and/or resources.”
- Work with other groups on campus. Teaming up with other departments or student groups on campus can help spread the word about your event. Meghan K. Root, a Sexual Assault/Wellness Advocate at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, discussed the significance of working with other groups on campus: “I think the combination of utilizing the approachable and outgoing Peer Health Educators, visible location, and incentives make our mental health screening days a success at both identifying students who may be struggling and increasing awareness across campus. Having student groups that are passionate and articulate about mental health concerns and the well-being of others has helped make NDSD a true success here at St. Mary’s College of Maryland!”
- Following up with referral information is as important as NDSD screening numbers. Kent State University psychologists Dr. John S. Schell and Carrie Berta expressed the importance of referral information stating, “In order to accommodate those referred for additional evaluation; Psychological Services makes same-day appointments available in the office, as well as urgent appointments available in the weeks following the event.”
The 2012-2013 academic year is well underway and we thank you for keeping the mental health of your students and community a priority.