Outreach should target depression
High costs rank among top health problems
Although not often thought of as such, depression is a major public health problem, according to the National Mental Health Association in Alexandria, VA. Clinical depression costs the American economy more than $43.7 billion annually in absenteeism, productivity loss, and direct treatment costs ranking it with other major health concerns. Coronary heart disease costs $43 billion, cancer $104 billion, and AIDS $66 billion. Just as educational programs target these major health concerns, the program should also teach the public what depression is, its cause, and treatment methods, advise the experts. What can patient education managers do? Following are a few suggestions:
• Help remove the stigma with education.
The first step in education should be outreach efforts, such as booths at health fairs, community workshops, and speakers sent to schools to help the public understand depression. Unless educators help remove the stigma of depression through education, people who might be depressed will not want to screen themselves for depression or be screened by professionals, says Rob Woodman, PhD, a practicing psychologist and a clinical professor in the Sutter Family Practice Residency program in Sacramento, CA.
• Provide resources to help people deal with a crisis.
Workshops and support groups that help people through the grieving process and teach such coping skills as stress management would probably reduce the frequency and intensity of depression, says Richard Friedman, PhD, director of research at the Mind/Body Medical Institute at Harvard Medical School in Boston. A list of community resources identifying programs that offer help to people facing a crisis, such as a death in the family, could also be provided.
• Alert the public to the signs and symptoms.
"The difference between being unhappy and being depressed is hard to figure out. Sometimes people don’t have the energy or the desire to pull themselves out of bed in the morning, but they bounce back," says Friedman. A problem exists when people can’t get out of bed for several weeks, are uninterested in the normal activities of life, such as being with their children, or think they would be better off dead. It is important to make sure people can identify the signs and symptoms of depression. (To find literature to distribute, see resource list, p. 52.)
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