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A free mental health screening offered at the Student Health and Counseling center can examine patients for one of five disorders in five minutes.
Because October is Depression Awareness month, the center is hosting Mental Health Screening Day today.
Staff leader Stacy Lowe said the screening will test participants for the five most common mental disorders found on college campuses: bipolar disorder, generalized anxiety, depression, eating disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, bipolar disorder affects about 6 percent of adults in the U.S. and the average age of onset is 25.
According to American Psychiatric Association, suicide is the second most common cause of death among college students and in 2008, about 30 percent of students reported that they felt so depressed that it impaired their ability to function. About 49 percent of students felt overwhelming anxiety, about 10 percent of students reported being diagnosed or treated for depression and about 25 percent will experience a depressive episode by age 24.
About 86 percent of women surveyed by the association reported the onset of an eating disorder by the age of 20 and about 40 percent reported that the onset occurred between the ages of 16 and 20.
According to the U.S. Depart of Veteran Affairs, about 8 percent of people in the U.S. will have PTSD at some point in their lives.
According to the National Institutes of Health, the average age for PTSD onset is 23.
Each Mental Health Screening Day questionnaire has specific questions about a specific disorder, such as how often the participant feels sad, nervous or experiences disruptions in sleep or an inability to fall asleep. But students who are unsure of which questionnaire to fill out can answer questionnaires for multiple disorders.
Before answering questions about a specific disorder, students will fill out a demographic survey that includes information such as age, gender, year, race and place of residence.
Lowe said that during Mental Health Screening Day in 2010, more than 100 people filled out the questionnaires and many of the participants scheduled consultations with counselors. She said she hopes to have another big turnout this year.
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SHAC Counseling Services Director Stephanie McIver said she is very excited about the event because it may encourage students to seek help and sort out problems so they can be healthier, better students.
“It is actually a testament to people’s strength and functionality that they seek help to resolve problems when they arise to get the help that you need and that are you entitled to,” she said.
McIver said students often ignore or undervalue the problems they experience because they don’t realize that mental health problems are common. She said mental health problems can often be debilitating, but students will never recover if they don’t seek help.
“There are a lot of people who struggle with something and say to themselves ‘This isn’t something that I need to seek counseling about,’” she said. “People are not alone in struggling with these symptoms. They are fixable — there is something you can do.”
