Pfizer, Inc., SmithKline Beecham, Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, and Zeneca Pharmaceuticals.

NATIONAL MENTAL ILLNESS SCEENING PROJECT (NMISP)

NMISP is a nonprofit organization developed to coordinate nationwide mental health screening programs and to ensure cooperation, professionalism, and accountability in mental illness screenings. This organization grew out of the success of National Depression Screening Day, the community outreach and education program created by Harvard psychiatrist Douglas Jacobs, MD, in 1991, with the support of the American Psychiatric Association.⁵⁴

Media coverage for NMISP's programs has been extensive. Segments about the programs have appeared on television shows such as NBC Nightly News, Good Morning America, CBS, and the CNN Morning News. Print coverage has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Sports Illustrated and hundreds of local daily papers. NMISP programs include National Depression Screening Day and Interactive Telephone Screening Programs.

NATIONAL DEPRESSION SCREENING DAY (NDSD)

NDSD is held each year during Mental Illness Awareness Week, usually in October. It is designed to call attention to the illnesses of depression and manic-depression on a national level, to educate the public about their symptoms and effective treatments, to offer individuals the opportunity to be screened for the disorders at no cost, and, to connect those in need of treatment to the mental health care system. Media coverage for National Depression Screening Day has been unusually high. In 1998, it was estimated that National Depression Screening Day received more than 400 million print, visual, and audio media impressions ⁵⁵

In 1998, NDSD screened more than 90,000 people at more than 3,000 sites. Site participants included primary care physicians, employers, hospitals, colleges, shopping malls, and community based organizations such as YWCA/YMCA. National Depression Screening Day, the first mental screening program of its kind, has now amassed the largest database of any mental health research project. The National Institute of Mental Health, a sponsor of the program, has analyzed some 100,000 individual screening forms containing symptomatology, demographic, and mental health care treatment history questions.⁵⁶

According to Isabel Davidoff, Chief of the National Worksite Program at the National Institute of Mental Health, employers who have participated in this program have reported an increase in the detection of depression in their employees, which has resulted in earlier intervention, and a corresponding reduction in work days lost and short-term disability costs.⁵⁷ Employers' participation also fosters destigmatization of mental illness and encourages an atmosphere of openness regarding mental health problems.

The National Depression Screening Day has many professional and government organizations as sponsors and supporters. Some of these are: the American Psychiatric Association, the National Institute of Mental Health, the American Association of Retired Persons, the American Colleges of Health Association, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the Employee Assistance Professionals Association, and Wellness Councils of America. Corporate funders have included: Abbott Laboratories, Eli Lilly and Company, Forest Laboratories, Parke-Davis, and Kaiser Pemanente.