0 w w w w 14W mw w lqw qw w w w w w 10 h McianDiy - dnsay- Nvmbr s820 Wednesday, Noverber 28, 2007 - The Michigan Daily I B QUOTES OF THE WEEK Why more students don't use CAPS The effort to combat cultural stigmas surrounding mental illness TALKING POINTS Three things you can talk about this week: 1. Musharraf giving up his uniform 2. Skin cells 3. MSA scandals And three things you can't: 1. Christmas 2. New episodes of "Last Call with Carson Daly" 3. Les Miles BY THE NUMBERS I turned into the artist." - LOIS GIBSON, the forensic artist on the "Baby Grace" case, on how she created a nearly identical rendering of the toddler's appearance from her remains "I spend not a nanosecond lis- tening to what each of them are sniping toward each other, so I have no idea what you're talking about." - JOHN EDWARDS, answering a question about Hillary Clinton's criticism of Barack Obama's foreign relations experience t can be difficult to pinpoint a particular group of people who are clearly more depressed or stressed than others. It's easy, though, to find the groups who are less likely to seek help. Depression and mental illness often come with baggage, more for some communities than others. More than one study has shown that immigrant communities and some minority groups are less like- ly to seek help for mental health conditions, even though they may have more stressors than the aver- age population. In 2005, Daniel Eisenberg, an associate professor in the School of Public Health, headed a research team that launched a survey called the Healthy Minds Study. Participants were given a small financial incentive to fill out a 10- minute-long questionnaire. About 2,840 University undergraduates responded. The study identified about13 per- cent of women screened and 12 per- cent of men screened as depressed. And while the University boasts one of the best mental health care programs at any college, and despite the sometimes long waits at Counseling and Psychological Services, the study showed that the University's resources go under- recognized by the student body. Less than 50 percent of students that the survey identified as seri- ously depressed had received any "We don't know if it's due to the glacial weather this morning or to unbridled pas- sion, but a couple did not hesitate in having sexual relations in a waiting room at the Koge train station." - CARSTEN ANDERSON, police spokes- man, on the possible reasons a couple decided to have sex in a Danish station kind of mental health care in the last year. Part of this is because not every- one knows counseling is available through the University - or that it's free. Another factor is the social barriers that restrict students from seeking help for mental ailments. For example, students who iden- tified as Asian or Asian-American reported higher levels of stigma about mental health care. And while there's a popular myth that black adults have negative asso- ciations with mental health care, black students were found to per- ceive less stigma about depression prevention than other groups. The University has been fairly diligent about responding to such findings. "The counseling center has a tradition of paying attention to health disparities," CAPS Director Todd Sevig said. "Most of all, we listen to what we're hearing from students." But addressing the needs of such diverse groups can be tricky, especially given the dearth of new research on the topic of depression and the cultural stigma surround- ing health care. To make sure stu- dents of different groups are being served equally, counselors try to match group statistics to the larger University population and look for inconsistencies in the numbers. Recently, CAPS found that far fewer international students were seeking mental health care com- pared to the larger student popu- lation, even though they generally reported the same rates of depres- sion. "What we did with that was we looked at the disparity in the data, talked to students and created an outreach campaign that targeted the concerns reported by interna- tional students," Sevig said. Since the campaign, CAPS has seen an increase in international students at counseling centers. He empha- sized that the higher levels of inter- national students coming for help didn't mean that there were higher numbers of international students who needed help in the first place. "Does it mean they're worse off now? No," Sevig said. "More stu- dents know about available servic- es now than did before, and they're usingthem." The University has numer- ous social, recreational and ser- vice groups to address the needs of the diverse student population and give its members a venue to express pride in their heritages. CAPS Interim Associate Director Stacey Pearson holds a luncheon for women of color, Nourish Your- SELF, four times a semester. The casual environment allows women, who identify with a range of groups, a supportive community to discuss stress agents and potential mental health triggers like relationship problems, stereotyping and stress. "It's about looking at values and traditions," Pearson said. "Know- ing what depression looks like for different groups." African and Caribbean-Ameri- can males tend to be less likely to seek health care on college cam- puses. Students in these groups also tend to have a different physi- cal experience of depression, Pear- son said. "Generally, African-American students tend to somaticize depres- sion," she said, that is, they could be more likely to convert anxiety into actual physical ailments. Awareness of the ways that dif- ferentcultural, ethnic and religious groups experience depression is a goal of CAPS's staff, Pearson said. "It means having the knowledge and skill base to help students in different constituency groups rec- ognize and understand their symp- toms," she said. A few years ago, Pearson recalled counselingstudents of color during the U.S. Supreme Court affirmative action cases in 2003. That spring, the University was the focus of a larger debate about using race in college admissions. "At that time, students of color felt they had to perform better...to prove to the people questioning them that they deserved to be there," she said. Counselors stayed updated about the case and set up stands in the Michigan Union to talk with students who felt frustrated and upset. "It's a big part of having cul- tural competency to understand and help students," Sevig said. "It's about awareness of socio-historical context, which is always fluid." Six years ago, John Greden founded the University of Michi- gan Depression Center in response to the increasing numbers of sui- cides among college students. He's subsequently singled out another campus group unlikely to seek help on campus - men, regardless of background or race. The center, which taps experts from different disciplines across schools, tailored a program called Real Men, Real Depression to the college community in an effort to destigmatize mental health care for men. The program was created and was first launched by the National Institute of Mental Health in 2003 as a public education campaign. While males and females tend to experience mental health ill- ness equally, men are far less likely to seek counseling. American men especially, Greden said, tend to suf- fer from stigma about masculin- ity. Greden believes that outreach efforts tailored to specific groups, like college-aged males, maybe one way to better make students aware of mental health care resources. By all accounts, the program has met with considerable success. But despite the University's outreach programs, not all groups are fully served. Eisenberg's study found that students with less money were the See CAPS, Page 12B YOUTUBE VIDEO OF THE WEEK Not The Daily Show In a parody of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," Jason Ross, one of the show's writers, gives a news broadcast on the Writers Guild of America strike in New York City. Ross compares the writer's plight to Viacom's lawsuit against YouTube in which a Viacom execu- tive harangues that media material shouldn't be used without the cre- ators getting their fair dues - an argument all too familiar to strik- ing film and TVwriters. Viacom is suing YouTube for $1 billion for copyright infringement. In the back left corner, a fellow writer holds signs simulating the Daily Show graphics behind Jon Stewart. With sarcastic comments on Via- com and the writers' claims, Ross mimics Jon Stewart, or at least his jokes, until "John J. Viacom, Jr. III" comes and demands the show "cease and desist." He is only suc- cessful in turning over Ross's table. And now, here it is, your moment of Zen: "Getting paid is the name of the game," said Sumner Redstone, the chair of Viacom. - EMILY BARTON See this and other YouTube videos of the week at youtube.com/user/michigandaily Number of new STD infections diagnosed each year Percentage increase of the number of diagnosed syphilis cases in 2006 from 2005 Estimated percentage of undiagnosed chlamydia cases Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention THEME PARTY SUGGESTION 'Save Capitalism' benefit - As any news media consumer knows, low spending during Black Fri- day this year has posed an immediate threat to the nation's economy. Help restore capitalism with one of those product peddling parties where every guest feels obliged to buy a piece of jewelry or sports memorabilia. Beer might be free at campus parties, but that doesn't mean your friends should leave with their wallets intact. Throwing this party? Let us know. TheSttement@umich.edu STUDY OF THE WEEK The Americas were populated in one migration University researchers have found genetic evidence that supports the theory that the native peoples of North America came to the conti- nent from Siberia by way of a land bridge in one movement, a University release said Tuesday. The land bridge theory is opposed by experts who believe the continent's populations arrived in separate migrations from different places. The study's researchers examined genetic variation at 678 loca- tions in the DNA of living members of 29 Native American populations across North, Central and South America, as well as two Siberian groups. The study suports the land bridge theory with findings that genetic similarity to Siberian populations decreased the farther a native people is from the Bering Strait and that a genetic variation is present in native populations across the American continents. - JESSICA VOSGERCHIAN 5'