Colleges Try Depression Surveys

The University of North Carolina (UNC) and Emory University have been integrating anonymous online surveys into the process of screening students for depression in the past two years.

This move was motivated largely by the perceived inadequacies in current mental health support for college students across the nation.

In a survey conducted by the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors, only 31 students out of the 161 students who committed suicide at 333 colleges sought mental-health treatment on their campus.

Currently, Harvard has not chosen to adopt this method, but Director of Behavioral Health and Academic Counseling Paul J. Barreira is now leading an effort in evaluating the success of these methods.

Barreira, who is also an associate professor of psychiatry, said that he has not found enough persuasive evidence in favor of this study to conclude that the University should also adopt this form of screening.

“I think that our methods have been successful,” said Barreira. “We have captured a lot of students.”

Director of University Health Services (UHS) David S. Rosenthal said that he also believed that current resources at the University are reaching a large number of students.

“If you can reduce the number of people who are being depressed and the number of attempted suicides goes down, then I guess we are doing well,” he said.

Nevertheless, Barreira said that it was premature to exclude the use of this testing measure in the future.

“We will not be using it come next semester, but will we be using it come next year? Who knows,” he said.

Currently, the University uses anonymous online testing on the UHS website and in-person surveys at the school’s Health Fair.

Barreira said that this method of testing for depression has the advantage of yielding immediate results.

In addition, Rosenthal said that Harvard has other approaches to persuading students to voice their concerns through school-sponsored groups such as the Bureau of Study Council or “Room 13.”

The method used by UNC and Emory University involved sending out e-mails to students with a series of questions used by psychologists to estimate levels of depression in an effort to reach out to students who were unresponsive to standard testing methods.

“It’s a double-edged sword, because it allows us to reach people we wouldn’t have otherwise,” said Mark McLeod, director of the university counseling center at Emory, to The Chronicle of Higher Education. “But the students can say whatever they want and then turn off the computer when the going gets rough.”

This approach was considered to be a more logical approach by the two schools given the technological context of modern education.

“This is how students communicate these days and to not have this as an option for counseling leaves a lot of students out,” said Jan A. Sedway, a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at North Carolina, to The Chronicle.