By Dennis O’Neil
Depression screenings will be taking place on Oct. 23 and 24 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The screenings offer students an opportunity to come forward and seek help for any emotional problems that they may be experiencing.
On Oct. 23, the screenings will be held in the Student Activities Center, as well as at the Commuter Services Center in Davidson Hall. On Oct. 24, the screenings will be held in the SAC, outside Mitzi’s in the Miller Information Technology Center and on the Health Sciences Campus.
The student fills out a questionnaire meant to gauge whether or not they are experiencing depression. Once they are finished, the questionnaire is scored by a student volunteer who then gives it to a counselor who can then talk to the student about whether or not they should seek treatment. All screening results, as well as the identities of those who participated, are kept confidential.
“[Last year], there were some instances where people would fill out a questionnaire and a counselor would schedule them an appointment immediately afterward,” said Laura Byrd, the chief counselor who is organizing the screenings. “Or if there was an emergency, someone would be ready to talk to them right away.”
This year, the screenings have upgraded to five locations. Student volunteers are coming from schools such as, Nursing, Social Work, Art Therapy, Music Therapy and Psychiatry.
Byrd said one of the reasons why the screenings have grown is because of a health assessment conducted in 2005. The assessment showed that 20 percent of students had experienced depression during the previous school year and 16.8 percent experienced anxiety.
“In some majors, I’ve seen the stress build up so much in students that it can cause some depression,” said senior Kevin Price. “Hopefully, the screenings will help identify depressed people, and give them a chance to get some help.”
The screenings are in conjunction with a number of different organizations on and off campus, such as the Kent School of Social Work, the PEACC Program and the Disability Resources Center, as well as the Kentucky Mental Health Association, which provided the questionnaire materials for the screenings. The Counseling Center also offers screening tests on its Web site for such problems as depression, alcohol abuse and eating disorders.
“At one point or another, most college students are depressed for various reasons,” said Jason Witt, a student in the master’s program for education. “It’s great that [students] have some place to go for help. The worst thing you can do when you are depressed is [to] keep it to yourself.”
“One of the intentions behind the screenings is to destigmatize depression as a negative thing that you shouldn’t acknowledge,” said Byrd. “We really want to reach people who otherwise wouldn’t get help.”
