Depression Grand Challenge

On May 16, 2022, Vice Chancellor Monroe Gorden and CAPS Director Nicole Green announced the opening of the Stress and Resilience or “STAR” Program.

The UCLA Depression Grand Challenge was awarded a five-year, $12 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to expand its STAND system of care, with a focus on reaching more California community college students.

In recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, UCLA teamed up with Beyoncé’s BeyGOOD to open the STAND for All program to everyone. Through STAND for All, UCLA offers free self-guided online lessons to teach participants cognitive behavioral skills for self-management of low mood and anxiety.

In an effort to understand more about depression experienced by pregnant and new moms, we are recruiting women who receive care at a UCLA OBGYN clinic and who are between week 28 of their pregnancy and 6 months postpartum.

After building content, a new platform, training a new cohort of coaches on the content and collaborating closely with students and administrators at East Los Angeles College, staff at Didi Hirsch and staff at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, the UCLA Depression Grand Challenge is excited to launch the STAND at ELAC program for ELAC students.

The UCLA Depression Grand Challenge was awarded two years of funding from the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health under the DMH+UCLA Public Partnership for Wellbeing in July 2020. This demonstration project explores the feasibility of implementing STAND in community colleges, as community college students are less likely to have access to mental health services and face significant need.

The article shared the “five C’s” for managing COVID-19 anxiety, as well as COVID-19–related insights from UCLA Depression Grand Challenge Co-Director Michelle Craske (psychology and psychiatry).

UCLA Depression Grand Challenge Co-Director Michelle Craske talked with “UCLA Health Zone Show” co-hosts Dr. Phil Cohen and Adam Auslund on May 23, 2020.

In response to the enormous and immediate need for support during COVID-19, UCLA partnered with Beyoncé’s BeyGOOD initiative and Jack Dorsey’s Start Small fund to create an online COVID-19 Care Package.

The DGC is recruiting approximately 200 people into the STAND coaching program. Given the COVID-19 pandemic, all training sessions are to be conducted remotely.