The University of Michigan will host the nation's first major conference focused on depression in college students, on March 6 and 7 at the Michigan League in Ann Arbor, MI.
The event will explore current knowledge on depression and related disorders in college undergraduate and graduate students, and the best approaches for prevention, detection and treatment. It is co-sponsored by the U-M Depression Center -- the only center in the nation devoted to research, treatment and education on all forms of depression -- and the U-M Rackham School of Graduate Studies.
Educators, students, researchers, mental health advocates and professionals, and the media are welcome to attend. Space is limited and registration is required; a registration fee will be charged for all participants except students and journalists. For more information, visit http://www.rackham.umich.edu/DepressionConf and http://www.depressioncenter.org.
Speakers will include depression experts from the U-M and other academic institutions, mental health advocates, and students who have dealt with depression and bipolar disorder in their own lives. The event will feature many workshops and discussion groups, as well as panel sessions, displays, a video documentary featuring students with depression, and a performance by Mentality, a U-M student advocacy group that explores mental health issues.
Three noted authors whose books address their own experiences with depression will give keynote addresses open to the public: National Book Award winner Andrew Solomon, author of "The Noonday Demon"; Meri Nana-Ama Danquah, who wrote "Willow Weep for Me: A Black Woman's Journey Though Depression", and Kathy Cronkite, author of "On the Edge of Darkness: Conversations About Conquering Depression", which features interviews with celebrities who have depression.
"Awareness of depression is growing in America, but we have not yet paid enough attention to the college population, who have both an adolescent's vulnerability to the onset of depression and nearly adult levels of independence and stress," explains John Greden, M.D., Executive Director of the U-M Depression Center. "Recent research confirms that depression among college students is a neglected problem, and we must work together to address it."
Adds Earl Lewis, Ph.D., Dean of the Rackham school, "We hope this conference will call attention to and work to ease the stigma of depression on the college campus. We need to learn from one another, and adapt the best practices from each campus to achieve earlier detection and effective intervention, including suicide prevention."
Greden and Lewis also hope the event will help identify barriers that stand in the way of implementation of effective strategies; formulate public policy interventions to overcome these barriers; and catalyze a coordinated, comprehensive approach to improve student mental health.
Among the topics to be addressed in the two full days of the event are: recognition of depression; issues facing student mental health services; innovative strategies now being tried at the U-M and other campuses; public policy approaches that may address current needs; and special issues for students of different ethnicities, nationalities and genders.
A book-signing associated with the conference will be held on March 6 at 6:15 p.m., at the Michigan League. Solomon and Cronkite will be joined by Patrick Corrigan, Ph.D., the Executive Director of the University of Chicago Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, whose book on the stigma of mental illnesses is called "Don't Call Me Nuts".
The conference is being planned by a committee co-chaired by Greden and Lewis, with faculty, staff and student participants from the U-M Depression Center and Medical School; Rackham School of Graduate Studies; Division of Student Affairs, including the Counseling and Psychological Services office and the University Health Service; School of Nursing; School of Dentistry; School of Social Work; College of Literature, Science, and the Arts; School of Art and Design; School of Education; and the Institute for Human Adjustment.
Background information on college students and depression
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, approximately 18.8 million American adults, or about 9.5 percent of the nation's population age 18 and older, have a depressive disorder. Depression most often begins in late childhood, in adolescence, or in early adulthood.
Recent research on depression and suicide in college students has begun to raise the public's awareness of the issue. For example, the American College Health Association in 2000 reported that 10 percent of college students -- 12.8 percent of women and 6.2 percent of men -- had been diagnosed with depression sometime in their lives. A 2002 national survey found that more than 80 percent of the 274 directors of campus counseling centers surveyed said they thought the number of students with severe psychological disorders had risen over the last five years.
Meanwhile, a recently published study from Kansas State University found that from 1989 to 2001, the percentage of students treated for depression doubled, as did the percentage of suicidal students.
Experts suspect that the college years are an especially vulnerable time for students prone to depression because of a potent mix of the hormonal and neurological changes of late adolescence, and the stressors of college life. These stressors include independent living, new social situations, increased academic demands, financial responsibilities, and increased awareness of sexual identity and orientation.
RSS