Help People who are depressed may find it difficult to seek treatment. The hotline offers a way to stay completely anonymous. Click on the picture to hear part of the screening test. This can be a dismal time of year in Detroit. Trees are bare, days are short, sunshine is scarce and summer seems far away.
Conditions are ripe for depression.
That's why Comerica, a bank holding company based in the Motor City, offers a free hotline to its 11,000 employees during the gloomy months of January, February and March. No, it's not a suicide hotline, and, in fact, there isn't even a person on the other end. It's an automated screening program for depression in which you answer recorded questions by punching numbers on the keypad, much like you would if you were calling an airline to make flight reservations. At the end of the four-minute screening, the answers are tabulated and a calm, friendly voice tells you whether you show symptoms of clinical depression. Roughly 300 employers around the country subscribe to the hotline, including Shell Oil, U.S. West and the state of Tennessee.