A Depression Fighting Strategy That Could Go Viral

Students who are suffering from stress outside of the classroom can often be emotionally hard to reach. A California elementary school uses a faculty dog to help ease the stress of students who come from difficult backgrounds.

PHS LandCare, with support from the city, develops small vacant lots into mini-parks that bring people out of their homes and engage with their community. A 2018 study found that people living near LandCare lots reported a decrease in feelings of depression and a reduction in feelings of poor mental health. The city's role is important to the program’s success, especially in providing money to hire contractors to maintain the green spaces, especially local residents and formerly incarcerated people. Sites must be in low-income neighborhoods and near business areas, schools, and recreation centers.

Resilient Arizona is a crisis counseling program that is funded by a federal grant and managed by the Crisis Response Network to mitigate the mental health effects of the pandemic. The crisis counseling is intended to help avoid progression of mental health concerns and the program is free and anonymous to all residents. Services are available in Spanish and English, with 23% of clients identifying as Latinx and Hispanic and 10% Spanish-speaking. After calling a help line, residents are connected to one of six contracted providers across the state. The program served 2,316 people from April to August 2020.

In Nigeria, a psychologist and a small group of medical students aimed to change the perception around mental health care by launching an online campaign inviting people to attend a fair. The turnout was so successful, that the group began hosting monthly workshops that have now spread to 13 states across Nigeria.

In the Twin Cities area, community mental health and wellness professionals have made it a priority to develop a pipeline of clinicians of color and create programming specific to residents of cultural and ethnic minority groups who may have experienced unique traumas. How can Minnesota's model inform Oregon's approach to mental health care in a state whose population is growing more diverse?

"We exploited the biological clock," is how an Italian psychiatrist describes what he has been testing to treat those suffering from bipolar disorder and depression. The approach, which has received both praise and criticism, requires patients to go through sleep deprivation, and so far, many are reporting successful outcomes from it.

In rural farming communities, it's not uncommon for those working in the agricultural industry to struggle with anxiety and depression. Because mental health professionals often aren't readily available in these areas, many turn to online resources such as #AgTwitter. However, a farm bill pilot program that piggybacks off of this type of communication is aiming to fill more of the gaps by strengthening outreach resources.

Research shows that prolonged feelings of loneliness can have unhealthy outcomes, and the likelihood of experiencing loneliness increases as a person ages. To combat this, many technology companies are trying a host of solutions targeted at senior citizens that includes tools such as interactive robots as well as an app that employs college students to acts as "grandchildren on demand.”

The need for therapeutic support is far outstripping the rate that doctors and nurses can get through training, let alone having enough caregivers in low-income areas. However, extensive studies have proven that a community-based mental health service can be just as effective as the global north's psychotherapists. By training lay people in evidence-based therapies that cover commonalities across different forms of trauma, low- and middle-income areas can access quality mental healthcare. Multiple studies across different age groups has shown dramatic improvement in conditions like depression or PTSD.

Community members of Amador County are implementing suicide trainings and community events to help intervene in crises and destigmatize talking about mental health. Using "leftover dollars from the state’s Proposition 63 millionaire tax," these efforts have resulted in community conversations and events such as suicide walks.