Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, October 3, 1995                   TAG: 9510030048
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FREE DEPRESSION SCREENING THURSDAY

Thursday is National Depression Screening Day, and representatives of the Mental Health Association of Roanoke Valley will be at Friendship Manor, Hollins College and Virginia Western Community college to test and talk with residents. They won't be diagnosing someone's mental state, but they will refer a person with signs of depression for an additional free assessment.

Almost everyone gets depressed at some time, but true depression lingers. Experts say general sadness, hopelessness, difficulty in making decisions, an inability to concentrate, irritability and changes in eating and sexual habits are indications of clinical depression - especially if the condition lasts more than two weeks.

Also, many depressed people sleep too much or too little, are restless or lethargic, experience inappropriate guilt and have recurrent thoughts of death or suicide.

Eighty-five people came to last year's screenings, and 67 of them took a written test and stayed to talk about the results with a counselor, said Diane Kelly, executive director of the association.

Forty-three people were referred for additional testing, and six of them were found to be seriously depressed and in need of help, Kelly said.

One person was suicidal, she said.

The idea behind the screenings is to help people spot depression and get treatment for it before it gets to a severe state. They are timed for this week because Oct. 1-7 is Mental Illness Awareness Week.

Here is the schedule for the screenings: 10 a.m.-noon, Hartsook-Tompkins Residents' Center at Friendship Manor, 397 Hershberger Road N.W., Roanoke; noon-2 p.m., Ballator Gallery at Hollins College, 7916 Williamson Road N.W.; 6:30-8:30 p.m., Whitman Auditorium, Virginia Western Community College on Colonial Avenue Southwest.

For more information, call 344-0931.

In some communities, businesses such as Bell South Telecommunications and Amoco Corp. and colleges like Harvard University and Florida State University are making it possible for employees to be screened for depression through an automated telephone test. The Roanoke Valley group considered setting up a workplace demonstration project this year, but didn't pursue the idea, Kelly said, partly because the association couldn't afford the cost of $1,000 a site.

"Also, we don't know from an advocacy standpoint if it is the wise thing to do," she said.

Automated telephone screening is being closely assessed to determine if it is a viable way to identify persons who may be depressed. Insurance companies are looking at the process as an alternative to office visits and some health plans already require telephone screening.

A 1995 study headed by Lee Baer, associate professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School, concluded from a two-week survey with 1,812 participants that telephone screening makes the screening widely accessible at a low cost. The next step, said Baer and his colleagues, is to determine if people identified with problems through a telephone screening then seek help. That will gauge the effectiveness of such screening, Baer's group said.