Contents

> Overview

Medical student statement

An attending's perspective

Resources for your PsychSIG

Access to Screening Toolkit

Links

There are many ways to think about the toll that mental illness takes in our communities. One is by the numbers:

• Depressive disorders affect about 10% of the U.S. population age 18 and older in any given year (1)

• 15% of depressed people will commit suicide, though some experts suggest that the figure is even higher (2)

• 54% of people believe depression is a "personal weakness," and 41% of depressed women are too embarrassed to seek help (3)

• Depression is associated with higher rates of medical care utilization, poor adherence to medical regimens, and increased morbidity and mortality from other illnesses. Several studies have recently demonstrated depression's contributory role in fatal coronary artery disease. (4)

• Depression is currently the fourth-leading cause of disease burden as measured in disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), but will move up to second (after heart disease) by 2020 (5)

• Depression results in more absenteeism than almost any other physical disorder and costs employers more than $51 billion per year in absenteeism and lost productivity (6)

• Nearly half of all college students report feeling so depressed at some point that they have trouble functioning (7)

• 9.4% of students reported seriously considering attempted suicide at least once during a 12-month period (8)

• Suicide is the second leading cause of death among college students (9)

These sobering statistics speak for themselves. Our field is still a long way from addressing the health needs of our patients and communities; both the behavioral and pharmacologic treatments and sheer number of clinicians needed to properly treat these diseases are still lacking. But research consistently demonstrates that early detection and intervention are vital in mental illness—and these are areas that students like you are uniquely suited to help with.

In that spirit, we hope that you will make it your PsychSIG's goal to start a Mental Health Screening Day in your community this year. National Depression Screening Day occurs annually in October. This web site provides all the information and resources you need to launch a successful initiative at the local level. The national leader in community mental health interventions, Screening for Mental Health, has generously partnered with us to provide all our medical student members free access to powerful and easy to use screening tools that you and your volunteers can use to identify individuals who may require further attention from a psychiatric practitioner or primary care clinician. Additionally, our site includes personal testimonials, articles from the research literature about community mental health, and an original PsychSIGN PowerPoint presentation that you can deliver at your school to educate your peers about this important topic. If you find that community psychiatry is your passion, we encourage you to get in touch with another PsychSIGN partner organization, the American Association of Community Psychiatrists (AACP).

With your help, we can take important steps toward identifying and addressing untreated mental illness.

Sincerely,

Justin Chen Region 1 Chair, 2007-9

Lara Cox Region 3 Chair, 2007-9

1. National Institutes of Mental Health 2. 3. National Mental Health Association 4. 5. World Bank Global Burden of Disease study 6. Rand Corporation report, 2004 7. American Psychiatric Association 8. American College Health Association 9.