Youth depression awareness project receives honors

The Peer-to-Peer Depression Awareness Project received a coveted Community-University Poster Presentation Award at the MICHR Community Engagement Annual Symposium on May 24.

The poster, entitled "The Peer-to-Peer Depression Awareness Project: An Educational Partnership to Provide Depression Awareness and Suicide Prevention Education for Ann Arbor Public School Students," was submitted by Stephanie Salazar, MPH, project coordinator for Principal Investigator James Cranford, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychiatry, his co-investigators (Joyce Hunter, Cynthia Ewell Foster and Jennifer Jester), and the study team (Stephanie Salazar, Anne Kramer, Trish Meyer, and Kristine Konz).

The pilot study was funded with a Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research (MICHR) Community University Research Partnership (CURES) grant in fall 2010.

The Peer-to-Peer Depression Awareness Project was conducted in six Ann Arbor high schools from October 2010 to May 2011 and built upon earlier work funded through the U-M Depression Center Innovation Fund. The initial project goals were to: 1) educate students about depression and depressive illnesses; 2) support them in finding creative ways to convey this knowledge to their peers in order to reduce stigma and raise awareness; and 3) help to promote the early detection of depression, bipolar disorder, and related illnesses.

With assistance from Ann Arbor Public Schools (AAPS) faculty advisors, the CURES pilot study added a research and evaluation component, including pre-test and post-test questionnaires based on content presented to the high school teams at a Depression Center Opening Conference in October 2010. Preliminary data analysis is under way, and the team intends to submit a R21 proposal to NIH in October 2011. (Photo: Stephanie Salazar, MPH [L] and Carolyn Sampselle, PhD, MICHR Community Engagement lead [R])