Group offers free mental health screenings

Each year, more than 40 million Americans will suffer with an anxiety disorder and over 20 million will suffer from some type of depressive illness. The cost to the economy of these terrible diseases is billions of dollars each year; the cost in human suffering is immeasurable. National Anxiety and Depression Awareness week is the opportunity to bring awareness and public education about anxiety and depressive illnesses.

Fear and anxiety are a normal part of life, even adaptive in many conditions. Who among us has not studied for a test without some anxiety - and scored better for it? Who has not walked down a dark street in a high crime district without mounting fear? Normal anxiety keeps us alert: it makes us question whether we really have to walk down that street after all.

Mental health professionals are not concerned with normal anxiety. Rather, they attend to fear and anxiety that has somehow gone awry; that inexplicably reaches overwhelming levels; that dramatically reduces or eliminates productivity and significantly intrudes on an individual's quality of life; and for which friends, family and even the patient can find no obvious cause. There is help and hope.

Aunt Martha's Healthcare Network will be having free anxiety and depression screenings in Aurora during National Anxiety & Depression Awareness week. The free screening is available for persons of any age and no appointment is necessary. Screenings will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, May 6 at the Aunt Martha's Aurora Healthcare Center, 101 S. Broadway. Then on Thursday, May 7, the screenings will be from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Aunt Martha's Aurora Satellite Healthcare Center, 317 East Indian Trail.

Aunt Martha's provides education to help patients understand their illnesses, treatment options and prevention strategies. As a social service agency, it is able to tap an extensive network of internal and external services to offer resources that go beyond routine health care. Aunt Martha's Healthcare Network offers a full range of primary and preventive health services for children and adults of all ages. All services are offered in a warm, caring, multilingual and culturally sensitive environment. Aunt Martha's believes that everyone deserves to be treated with respect and dignity, regardless of their ability to pay. Aunt Martha's Healthcare Network accepts private insurance and any form of public insurance including Medicaid, Medicare and All Kids. A sliding fee scale is available for those without insurance.

For information about services in your area or depression and anxiety, visit www.auntmarthas.org.