Mission

Families for Depression Awareness helps families recognize and cope with depressive disorders to get people well and prevent suicides.

What We Do

“I started Families for Depression Awareness after losing my brother, Mark, to suicide. His depression was never diagnosed, but after his death, I was able to help my father get diagnosed and treated for depression. I learned that being educated about depression, getting effective treatment, and monitoring treatment saves lives.” Julie Totten, President and Founder, Families for Depression Awareness

We provide education to support families across the United States. We offer the following programs:

• Our Teen Depression Program: This program is for parents, teens, and school staff. We offer free teen depression training, wellness guides for parents and teens, and videos
• Our Family Program: This program is for family caregivers and those with a depressive disorder. We offer free trainings, wellness guides, brochures, Depression in the Family Podcast, online family history and monitoring tools, and family and expert stories.
• Our Depression in the Workplace Program: This program offers free Coping with Stress and Depression trainings for employees, and free Cost of Mental Health in the Workplace training for managers.
• Our newest program, Strides Against Stigma, is an opportunity for community members to come together to take a stand against stigma, which prevents many people from seeking help for their depressive disorder.