A week long mental health screening that takes place annually is once again running this October from Oct. 5-11. The National Depression Screening initiative hosted by the Calgary Counselling Centre asks the question AreYoufeelingOK.com with respondents being able to go online to take the assessment.
Associate director of counselling initiatives with the Calgary Counselling, Marcus Cheung explains the effort is not just one day.
“For the past 20 years, the Calgary Counselling Centre has been involved in this initiative. The purpose of this is to provide education to reduce stigma and offer free mental health screening to all Albertans who might want to take a moment to check in with how they are feeling,” says Cheung.
A standardized quiz is available online in six languages including English, French, Chinese, Punjabi, Spanish and Ukrainian.
“The questionnaire is a screening tool. It is trying to detect the symptoms for depression. It is modelled after the standard physical test that people do. For example, blood pressure or diabetes screening,” says Cheung. “It will ask you, for example, how do you feel that your body was functioning in the past week. Do you have any symptoms of depression? Do you feel irritable? Do you feel hopeless?”
When you complete the quiz, the individual will be given one of three options, either:
- Not recommended for further evaluation (low score)
- Recommended (mid score)
- Or strongly recommended (high score)
“The first step to getting help lies within the individuals,” says Cheung. “People will have to admit that there is an issue and be courageous enough to seek help. Struggling with depression can feel overwhelming but the good news is that depression is highly treatable.”
Cheung stresses the sooner you get help leads to faster and better outcomes.
More resources
You may take the quiz online using this link.
More help is available online or in person via Counselling Alberta and the Calgary Counselling Centre.
Here in Vegreville, you can visit St. Joseph’s Hospital General Hospital, or the Vegreville Family Clinic.
