Mental Health Screening Kiosk Opens Outside Of Drexel University Rec Center
By John McDevitt
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- "A check up from the neck up." A self-operated mental health screening tool set up outside Drexel University's recreation center hopes to reduce the stigma of mental illness.
The mental health screening is anonymous. You walk up to the kiosk, and there are a bunch of yes-or-no questions on various topics including depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder.
Depending on your results, the kiosk offers resources to where you can see someone for a potential issue, though it's important to note the screening does not diagnose you.
"So often, mental illness isn't talked about it. It's like it's the big elephant in the room - where everybody knows that it is there, but nobody ever wants to talk about it," says Anna Gibbons, a sophomore in the public health program and an officer of Active Minds, a peer-to-peer mental health advocacy and awareness group at Drexel.
"But by placing a kiosk in such a place as a gym, where you can have this holistic approach with physical health, mental health, people realize that it is important and kind of opens the door up for more conversation about these types of issues."
This is the second generation of a mental health kiosk. The first debuted at a North Philadelphia grocery store last summer.
