If you or someone you know might be suffering from depression, there will be an opportunity to get a free evaluation next week in Hinton.

Depression screening tests will be offered at no charge on Oct. 6 at the Valley Mall. The written tests will be made available through Hinton’s BRIDGES society and an on-site mental health clinician will also be present at the society’s new storefront in the mall.

Executive director Judith Staples said this is the first time that BRIDGES has made the tests available in the region, and it’s something the registered charitable organization now hopes to do annually.

“We’re not thinking we’ll have big numbers (in this first year) but if you can even reach out to a few people and help them it’s worth doing,” she said.

The tests were created by Screening for Mental Health (SMH), an American organization which works to raise awareness of mental health issues. Across North America on Oct. 6, SMH will make the tests available through a variety of local agencies as part of its “National Depression Screening Day.”

Staples has helped administer the screening tests in the past, when she worked with a First Nations agency in British Columbia, and found that the initiative was quite helpful within the community.

“At the time it was something that a lot of people had never been exposed to and our mental health worker was trying to raise awareness of mental health issues,” she said. “One of the things he found, which he was very surprised at, was that there were a lot of men who came.”

When Staples joined BRIDGES last year, she said one of the first things she wanted to do was to bring the tests to Hinton as well.

She said it is estimated that one in five people will experience a mental health issue at some point in their lives and the tests are a great way to reach out to area residents who might not otherwise connect with the services that are available to help them.

The tests are completely free and voluntary, Staples emphasized. Once you write a test you can evaluate the results yourself and then, if you so choose, seek to have your results further explained by the on-site clinician.

The tests will be available on Oct. 6, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the BRIDGES new storefront location next to Rexall Drugs at the Valley Mall in Hinton. Anyone is welcome to drop by.

Staples said the organization was just in the process of moving into its new location in late September. It had previously been located in the Grace Lutheran Church.

BRIDGES was created by a small group of concerned parents and Alberta Mental Health staff in 1996 in response to what they saw at the time as a lack of support services for adults with mental health issues.

Staples said the organization hopes its new, higher profile location in the mall will help make more area residents aware of the services it offers and of mental health issues in general.

Depression, she added, is “more than just feeling sad.”

“When sadness is your whole life, a major thing in your life, people need to recognize there might be more going on than they realize,” she said.

For more information about the depression screening tests, call 780-865-4464.