Free Screenings for Depression Offered Today : Health: Several O.C. sites will take part in national program. Condition especially affects elderly, officials say.

Health care officials hope that elderly people, the group most at risk of suffering from depression, will be among those who turn out today in Orange County to participate in National Depression Screening Day.

Although the elderly are four times more likely to suffer from depression than are other adults, experts say they often are the last ones to seek help.

“It’s really a vicious cycle. The elderly have to battle with so much loss. As you age, you lose family, you lose your health and even your independence,” said Sandy Warmoth of Newport Bay Hospital. “But the stigma of depression keeps you quiet.”

To increase public awareness of the problem, several medical organizations plan to screen people of all ages at sites including Newport Bay Hospital, the Oasis Senior Center in Corona del Mar and Irvine Senior Center. The free screening includes a short written test and an interview with a mental health professional. Last year, about 80,000 people were screened across the country.

For many senior citizens, talking to a psychiatrist is taboo, said Martie Williams, director of Irvine Senior Concepts, an outpatient psychiatric hospital affiliated with UCI Medical Center in Orange.

“When they were growing up, they were taught not to air their dirty laundry in front of strangers,” she said. “So they think that they should just pull themselves up by their bootstraps and keep their pain to themselves.”

Because senior citizens often postpone treating their depression, their risk of medical problems caused by neglect is great, Williams said.

Signs of depression include fatigue and loss of sleep and appetite. These symptoms can exacerbate physical problems and create new ones, Williams said. Extreme or untreated depression may drive senior citizens to commit suicide, as it will with people of all ages.

Yet Williams said some elderly people and their families dismiss depression as a natural aspect of aging.

“People say, ‘Your spouse has died, you’re retired and you’ve suffered a lot, so of course you’re melancholy,’ ” she said. “But it’s not the loss that counts, it’s how you cope with it.”

Dr. Gary Freedman-Harvey of Newport Bay Hospital, a psychiatric facility that caters to the elderly, recalled one woman whose depression plagued her with delusions. The woman suffered for years in silence until a neighbor called on her behalf.

“She honestly feared that the company she had retired from would cut off her pension checks at any moment. Nobody could convince her otherwise,” he said. “The fear of losing this money was crippling her.”

A depressed person may feel so inadequate that they expect the world to turn against them, Freedman-Harvey said. After counseling, the woman was able to understand the frustrations lurking beneath her fears.

“The people most resistant to help are often the ones at the greatest risk,” he said. “They feel the world has passed them by.”

To make an appointment for a screening or receive a list of local sites, call the National Depression Screening Day 24-hour hot line, (800) 262-4444.