Each year in October National Depression Screening Day occurs at various locations all over the US and Canada. This annual event, first created in 1991 with the support of the American Psychiatric Association, has made great strides in educating the public and allowing them the opportunity to be screened in a safe setting. A study published in 2000 in the American Journal of Psychiatry took a look at whether this effort had been helpful in getting more people treated for their depression.
To obtain their data, the researchers made follow-up calls to participants in the 1996 National Depression Screening Day. The majority of participants were white, employed females.
Only 3.9% of participants had ever been screened before, which shows that this effort is doing a great job in reaching people who might otherwise not be getting any sort of evaluation.
These screenings also seem to do a every effective job of identifying people who need treatment. Of 927 subjects in the sample who had been referred for depression treatment, 602 (64.9%) obtained further evaluation. Of these 602, 503 (83.6%) received treatment, and 376 (74.8%) were still in treatment after six months.
This study did find, however, that those with health insurance (66.7%), and specifically mental health insurance (74.6%) were more likely to follow up with recommendations for treatment than those who did not have insurance (57.5% and 55.3% respectively).
Although the 1996 screening program helped 62,000 people across the US and Canada, clearly this is only half the solution. Lack of insurance coverage remains a significant barrier to many working people.
Source: Shelly F. Greenfield, Joelle Meszler Reizes, Larry R. Muenz, Barbara Kopans, Rene C. Kozloff, and Douglas G. Jacobs. Treatment for Depression Following the 1996 National Depression Screening Day. Am. J. Psychiatry 2000 157: 1867-1869.
